Zombiez in Costco
by Death-By-2olkat
Summary: This is a CroTula fan fiction that's based off a roleplay that eventually got stale and we had a mutual agreement to end it at some point. To summarize: A lot of shit can happen during the apocalypse when you're inside a Costco. Rated M for violence, detail of blood and other disgusting things, and death. Prepare for a few feels near the end.


Latula Pyrope was NOT expecting the zombie outbreak to have come around so quick! Sure, she knew there was supposed to be one sooner or later, but not at all this soon! Or for it to really come at all. Of course those five months were difficult since she had to kill her own sister when she turned into one of them. Though she had told her to kill her if she were to ever change into one of the monsters, she'd have to. And so she did.

The red headed girl grew up in a state where she was allowed to use a gun and had sometimes went hunting with her dad. Well, that was only once. Point is, she knew how to use a gun and when to use it. For example: the zombie apocalypse. The twenty year old had so many plans for the actual future where she'd be the top gamer or run a skateboard show on TV, she had already been famous for her YouTube channel, but now it didn't matter. Mostly it now just meant she was in good shape which made it easier to outrun some of the faster zombies if there would be too many to kill.

Right now, she had been out to, hopefully, stock up on more supplies for herself. That would mostly be for water and any other types of food. Okay, nothing moldy. She made that mistake too long ago and nearly attracted zombies by the smell, and sound, of her vomit. Ugh, the memory alone made her want to hurl, but she kept going.

Oh, thank GOD! A Costco! A perfect place to stuff her bag with food and water! And probably a first aid kit since there was a possibility that she had to change her bandages on her wrist. That was sprained. By complete accident. When she fell off a roof and into a dumpster to escape the zombies. Ugh, that had hurt so bad.

"Fuck." Latula muttered as she got inside, holding her blood-stained axe. She ran out of ammo about a week ago and couldn't find any other weapon other than the axe. No way was she using her old baseball bat, not a chance.

Getting to the drink aisle, she slowly scanned the shelves for water. Unfortunately, she wasn't paying attention to her surroundings until the zombie was running towards her and making its weird noises. "Shit!" Was all she could get out before she grabbed the axe, getting tackled to the hard floor almost immediately, the zombie on top of her with only the handle of her weapon preventing it from eating her. The first thing she did? And probably most stupid thing to do in this situation? Yelling for help. Yeah, probably the worst idea ever in the history of zombie movies, shows, games, books...

Who knows if there are more zombies in the place? Or people who'd want to kill her just to take her bag. Not that she had much in it other than feminine things that were essential. "Help! Anybody here!" She continued to scream, trying to push the zombie off her and whined at the pain in her wrist. She was so dead.

Cronus had been, well... a spoiled rich kid. So had his little brother Eridan. What else could you really be when your dad was the owner of thousands of companies and owned billions of dollars? He attended private schools, but he also was trained in firearms for trophy hunting with the family every so often. The fencing and basic knife training was added on for personal interest, but goddamn was he glad he requested it around age nine.

The zombie apocalypse happened while he was on a class field trip, and he had barely made it out of the museum alive. What's more terrifying than your classmates dying and coming back to life right in front of you, then attempting to eat your brains? He had broken a case of older weapons from Australia (he's probably remembering wrong), and snagged a kukri to lop heads and arms off as he ran.

Five months had passed, and Cronus was trying to find his way through towns back to Oregon, his home state and where he desperately hoped his brother was, alive and well with his father. Dad could be a prick, but hell, every parent has drawbacks. He just wanted them alive and okay, sniping zombies from the rooftop of the mansion and high-fiving each other. Okay, that last part was his imagination- Eridan and Dad don't show much affection to each other.

Now, he was almost completely out of water and his stomach was grumbling from lack of food. He had made the vending machine snacks last longer than they originally would have, but he was starving! He spotted a Costco that didn't have the heavy doors shut to create a fortress and he perked up. Finally, some good luck!

As he walked in, he double-checked that the bandanna over his hand was there and the protective leather jacket didn't show bare skin. He ran a sweaty hand through his hair to brush it from his eyes, then he heard a high-pitched scream. Oh shit, someone's in trouble!

Cronus ran down the aisles and saw a zombie pinning someone down in the water aisle. He pulled out his kukri from the makeshift sheath he made and whistled, trying to draw its attention as he walked down the aisle. "C'mon, you rottin' piece a shit, come afta me!"

When Latula saw someone at the end of the aisle yelling at the zombie and panted as it decided to abandon her for now to run at the other male, shuffling into a sitting position and reached for her axe. Hey, maybe she could throw it or something if the dude got in shit for helping her out. Maybe not, she discovered as she felt her ankle burn. Maybe it was sprained or a muscle was just twisted or something. Nothing that she's not had before with all her wipe outs before this whole thing started up.

"Damn it." She muttered, watching it continue to run and saw another zombie coming over. Shit, now this was trouble. "Hey! There's another one, man!" Latula yelled, finally grabbing her axe and stood up with a hiss to lean against a shelf, throwing her axe at the second one, nailing it right in the spine to at least cripple it. Well, one partially down, at least. Least she could do for either the guy who was saving her or pretending to save her to raid her.

Either way, she helped a bit. Nope, couldn't stand up for too long, apparently. So she sat back down again to rub off her face before looking at her bag, the man, and the two zombies. Well, one running zombie and one crawling crippled zombie. Looking down at her ankle, she let out a faint curse before laying on her bag. Yeah, like that would protect him from taking anything. Not like there was anything useful for him other than her feminine products.

Cronus watched the zombie abandon the chick, as the person turned out to be a girl around his age, and hefted his blade. He began running toward the zombie, trusting his jacket to resist more than five bites if it came down to it. He didn't even hear the other zombie until the girl yelled out and something thwacked into rotted flesh behind him. He hazarded a glance back and saw a downed zombie for maybe half a second before turning back and OH GOD RIGHT IN HIS FACE-

He ducked fast, those infected, spit-covered teeth almost brushing his skin as he dodged the bite. He swung out his left and sank the blade into the zombie's guts. Shit, only head shots and decapitations worked. He yanked the blade out and danced back, watching the second zombie keep crawling as the first came at him again, its intestines spilling onto the hard concrete. Groooss! That was absolutely disgusting, the smell of rancid food and rot.

He had the element back as he charged, lashing out at the zombie's neck and wincing as the blackened blood splattered his covered hand. Ew. Still gross, after five months. The rifle on his back bounced as he hacked again, fully chopping the head off after he kicked it in the chest. He turned to the downed one as soon as the other one stopped moving, giving it a similar treatment before crushing the head with his thick hiking boots.

Latula watched him and could only smile a bit. Man, the guy really knew his way around killing zombies and having the right gear for it, too. All she really ever had was her axe and running shoes to count on. If she count outrun zombies, then she figured she was mostly safe. Well, more or less, at least. If she could smell anything, then that would've been a better advantage. And there was another weapon she had: her sister's cane that she refused to really ever use since it was mostly just for emotional value.

Continuing to listen and watch the guy fighting them off, she nearly gagged at seeing him crush the other zombie's head. Ew, that was disgusting. She's seen nasty, but that move took the cake. Her first version of nasty was once swinging her axe with her eyes closed and ended up cutting off the lower part of the thing's jaw. Never again has she swung at a zombie with her eyes closed. Eyes all open just about all the time.

Then she saw the rifle on his back and her eyes widened. Hope that thing wasn't loaded and that he wouldn't kill her. Especially since she was pretty damn defenseless after using her axe to help him out. And hopefully it would be returned instead of taken away by the guy?

"Thanks, dude! Hey, uh, could you return my axe?" Latula shouted once he was done with the two and made sure not to shout too loud in case there'd be any other running zombies.

Cronus just happened to be interested in weapons and how to use them before this shit went down, but it sure came in handy. The curved blade was light in his hand, compared to the longer knives he originally trained with, but it served its purpose. He could use it, and hell, it fit in his hand just right.

The crushing-the-head thing might have been overkill. He grimaced as he shook the mush and bone shards off his boot, then turned to the girl he just saved. She didn't seem so hot, judging by how she was standing- oh. "Sure thing, Red." He yanked the axe out of the zombie and walked back over, the wet boot making a small squelching noise as he walked over. He handed it back, scanning over her.

"Ya doin' okay, Red? I got a med kit if ya need it," he offered as he adjusted the strap of the rifle. The gun was loaded, but the safety was on and he made no move to grab it. "Also, ya can call me Cronus, or Cro if ya want." He smiled slightly, then went for his bag in case she needed the medicine or something.

Latula smiled lightly and took her blood-stained axe from him with her good hand, placing it beside her for now. It would need to be sharpened again soon, she thought to herself. She nearly asked why he called her 'Red' before remembering he probably regarded her hair color. Right. Red hair.

"I'll just need to stitch up my ankle and replace bandages for my wrist. If you don't have anything for stitches, then just bandages and... painkillers? Name's Latula, pretty sure ya can't shorten that." She said and rubbed the back of her neck with her good hand, smiling back at him a bit. "And thanks for savin' my ass, Cro. I honestly figured I was a goner. Can't escape a pin-down from onna those guys with a broken wrist, right?" She laughed awkwardly. Man, been a while since she's done anything close to laughing.

She looked back at him and hummed a moment. "You here the same reason I am? For water and food? And probably medical stuff?" She shrugged. Most likely he wasn't looking for her type of meds that calmed her anxiety since she was running real damn low. Probably gonna start having some panic attacks soon. Hopefully not today, no, not today.

While the girl set down her axe in what could be taken as a sign of peace, Cronus ran a hand through his mostly black hair. The roots were showing something awful, and he really just needed a haircut at this rate. New clothes would be nice too, his current ones were crusted with sweat, blood, and dirt.

"Eh, I think Tula works," he said with a slight grin. Usually giving your name meant you were a decent person at the very least. "I make sure ta raid ev'ry hospital I can before leavin' town, so I got pretty much everythin' ya need." He knelt and slid the rifle down off his shoulder, handing it to her. "Need ta find th' shit first, so watch our backs, 'kay?" He set the satchel that was on his hip on the floor and opened it, rifling through it for the kit. It didn't take long, since it was no longer buried under vending machine snacks.

"Mostly jus' water and food, since I have most ev'rythin' medical," he replied. "There're a lot more survivors out there than ya really expect, and soon food'll run out if we don' get this apocalypse shit taken care of." He was indeed not looking for her anxiety meds, he had a stock of his own meds. Depression is one helluva bitch when everything has gone past 'SHIT' on the Shit-o-meter. "Aha! Here it is," he exclaimed as he pulled out the kit. "Was hidin' un'er my clean pants."

"Yeah, I know about the survivors. Most of 'em just wanna raid a chick who looks weak and on her own," she said and ran her good hand through her own dyed hair. Yeah, her blonde roots were gonna show. Probably wouldn't matter with how much blood and mud was sticking onto her now. Hell, she didn't remember the last time she's worn clothes that were clean. First month of the apocalypse her bag was taken with her clean clothes and she was lucky to get away with having her pills in her pockets. The rest of the months, she couldn't get a break with clothes. Who knows how long she'd last in the winter. And when was that going to be? Two months? She's honestly lost track.

And then she was given the rifle and nodded, holding the rifle as she looked around slowly. "Damn, you actually have clean clothes and shit. You've either been lucky or real prepared, Cro." Lucky this guy was nice for right now, but who knows if he'd stay that way, right? Yeah, a girl's gotta have some issues with trusting people she didn't know. Had to stay that way. Then again, she got a good vibe off Cronus.

Just for the hell of it, she looked around with the rifle, slowly looking around with her smudged red shades. Gonna need to clean them soon too. Can't really go around blind with or without them. "Have a silencer for this thing?" she asked curiously as she decided to look at the rifle itself.

"Not just chicks either- they'll steal from anyone really," he replied. "Had a decent supply of canned food for a couple days, then a pair of guys knocked me out and jacked them. Real jackasses," he grumbled. "That would've lasted me close to a month if I rationed." He was still bitter about it, because it had his favorite canned soup in it.

The clothes had been found in a Macy's that had half of the next building over crushed on top of it. Retrieving them had been nerve-wracking, but at least it had been empty of living zombies- the others had given in to rigor mortis or been crushed by the steel beams and concrete. He set the kit next to his legs and kept rifling, then remembered he put the key on his necklace and pulled it from the top of his shirt. The Aquarius sign charm that hung from it gleamed a bright violet, and the little silver key dangled on the chain behind it. Pulling off the chain, he unlocked the box and opened it up.

"Nope, haven't found one for that particular make yet. Been looking, but most gun shops are raided through or someone's home," he explained. He thought he heard something behind them and looked around, his heart rate picking up fast. "...on your seven, Tula. Think I heard one. Should I get it?"

Latula simply nodded with a small laugh, wiping off her mouth a moment. "I saw one that'd be okay for this rifle. I haven't eaten in about... a week or something like that? Yeah, this is a new bag. So far I only got female things in there, nothing valuable for a guy," she said and shifted a little closer to look at the contents of the kit just to see what exactly was in there other than bandages or painkillers. Mostly just looking for wire and a needle or something.

She heard the noises too and squinted behind him, then looking behind her, grabbing her axe with a slight hiss as she put his rifle down. She was better with her axe anyways. And it was more quiet in her opinion. Sure, it might be a little heavier and she'd have to get it after, but she just sort of liked it. Holding her breath, she kept her axe close to her and made her way slowly towards the end of her part of the aisle to peek around the corners.

Pretty big mistake as a zombie ran towards her, though she was quicker with her axe as she swung it at its legs, hitting its knees before hacking off its head. Hopefully that was the last of them and there'd be no humans. Seriously, she'd rather zombies than humans. "I got it. Though maybe you could do the stand-and-peek? I can't do that much, really."

"Really? Hell yeah, just show me the way once you're ready," he said excitedly and paused at hearing her explain how long she's gone without eating. "Jesus Tula, I am going to steal as much food from here as I can so you can eat. You can live off water for a while but you need nutrients." Wow, mother mode. That's a new side of him. "I've heard tampons are good at stopping nosebleeds, then you can throw them as a decoy for zombies." He shrugged. "Well, I thought up the throwing part."

The noises grew louder and Cronus carefully pulled his kukri to his hand, clutching it tightly. When she set the rifle down, he used his foot to pull it over to himself for now. Already, he was searching for an escape route or a hiding place- right, the pallet storage in the aisles! He could climb up to an empty spot and haul Latula up, and fix her ankle in peace. Good plan, he was tucking away for later.

The hissing of the zombie made him jump, and he turned to watch Latula decapitate the undead with only two or three swings.

There was a reason he watched Lara Croft movies online with his friend golgathasTerror- women fighting shit and winning was hot as hell. "Y-yeah, I got watch." Wincing at his stammer, he stood. "Had an idea, we can use the empty pallet space above the aisles. They're out of zombies's reach, and we can dig into the unopened pallets for food if we find the right aisle."

"Throwing bloody tampons as a decoy?" Latula asked with a bit of a snort. "And this nose hasn't bled in, like... forever." She said and raised her shades a bit to trace a finger over a scar on the bridge of her nose. "Bad boarding accident. They couldn't get the smell back. Lucky to be alive, they told me..." Well, that was quite a story that she remembered too well. "And you almost sound like one of my old friends. He was such a blabbermouth and just..." Okay, it hurt to remember certain people.

And felt weird talking to a stranger about her past life. Why was she rambling there? Oh yeah, no filtering now. "Oh god, it was bright!" Latula hissed and pulled her shades back down over her light green eyes. She looked around a little while shaking her head slowly at his idea. Did he even see the state of her ankle? How could she get up there, anyways?

"And a bit of a problem with your idea, Cro. You haven't seen my wrist or my ankle, so it's not like I can easily climb right now and helping me up could cost someone their life if there's, like, a person charging at us. One of those things or a raider, I mean," she said and wiped off her bloody axe with her shirt before wiping the edge of it off on the ground. Damn, she was bloody. Sometimes she couldn't tell if the blood was hers or anyone else's.

Cronus watched her carefully as she recounted a bit about her past. Huh... no sense of smell. That meant no real sense of taste either. That must really suck! If he couldn't smell stuff like freshly-cooked bacon or even just his favorite deodorant, he'd be pretty down and out about it. Good thing she survived. Well, if you're looking at the 'happy to be alive' point of view. Being in Zombie Hell™ probably wasn't something to solely live for.

Cronus couldn't help but chuckle a bit as she pulled her sunglasses back down over her eyes. He smiled slightly, then frowned a bit. "Well I thought we'd do it now, when nobody is after us and I can snipe the bad guys from a distance," he reasoned. "I'm more than willing to boost you up, Tula."

His eyes traveled down to look at her bloody clothes, and he shifted slightly. Dammit boner, not now. "As for tending to your injuries, I'd rather do that without worrying about a raider or zombie sneaking up on us- ya dig?" He grabbed a cloth from his back pocket and wiped down his kukri, now feeling like he had to since she did. He also didn't want stains on it. "Sooo. You wanna find a spot now and kill the zoms on our way around, or just find the spot after fixing you up?"

Latula raised her eyebrows at him and wiped off her forehead, leaving a blood smear across it. Yep, she didn't exactly have the cleanest hands after chopping a zombie's head off with an axe at fairly close distance. "Well, gotta at least get my ankle back in place and wrap something around my wrist before we get going. I'm useless without both legs fixed up. Or, at least, in place. Wrists aren't much of a big deal. I managed to get around a few times with a broken arm and sprained wrist before all this became an absolute shit storm."

Then she took off her shoe and sock, rolling up her pant leg slightly to show her swollen and slightly bloody ankle, a little bone showing. Yeah, it hurt like a bitch, but it was a little bearable. And then she took off the bandage on her wrist, hissing as she did so. Gotta be infected since she could see the bone still poking out. "See my problem there, Cro?"

Hearing another noise, she sat up slightly and looked around, peeking around the edge of the aisle. "Fuck. Raiders." Latula hissed out quietly to Cronus while holding onto her wrist and reached for the bandage she just removed from her wrist. She'd rather not deal with living humans, she'd rather cut off zombie heads. If there were more zombies, however... they could easily throw something and make a noise where the living were and not have to deal with either of them.

"Hey. Toss something that way. The zombies'll get them and then we won't have to do anything except listen and watch out for the possible loner," she said as she gestured her head in the general direction of the other people that seemed to be talking a little louder than she was. "And then we could raid them once everything's done."

Cronus nodded in understanding. How bad was her wrist and ankle? Hopefully it was just sprains, or a small fracture at the most. He did take the advanced first-aid classes at private school, since it was good things to know just in case, but he wasn't that good with major injuries. He watched her unwrap her ankle and paled once he saw the bone. "Oh dear fuckin-" He wanted to throw up. "How th' fuck're ya still wvalkin'?!" His lisp tended to come out if he was feeling strongly about something in particular, and right now it was horror and fear.

Her wrist wasn't any better and Cronus was green around the non-existent gills. "Jesus...! Y-yeah, crystal clear. You should've reset it first..." Her small hiss and whisper had him reaching for his blade, worried that his efforts in saving Tula had been in vain. She couldn't possibly run, and how was she still coherent? Infection could kill within three days, or drag it out to a week if fate decided to give you the bird. He hoped that he wouldn't lose his one friend in the entire country-

"Huh?" Oh. OH. That was downright diabolical.. "But what if they're NOT raiders? We could be killing other people like us," he whispered back. He still grabbed a water bottle off the floor, looking at the brackish water inside. It would be nice to have more food and supplies. Cronus was too much of a bleeding heart, though. At least, when he wasn't being treated like shit. He's defensive as hell: 45 ATK, +84375 DEF.

Latula shook her head and couldn't help but smile at his lisp. It was cute. "Uh, this literally just happened when the zombie knocked me down before we met? Foot got caught in somethin' and twisted. And I DID reset my wrist, just couldn't really keep in the clean-ish stick I used right. And I don't have anything to exactly disinfect it. Why d'you think I came to a Costco?"

Then she shook her head. "I recognize those voices. They practically killed my lil sis when they jumped us. Made her scream and zombies surrounded us, they shoved her into them and held me back while they just fucking LAUGHED. They knocked me out and took almost everything and she was turned by the time I came back to consciousness and I..." she started and shook her head, rubbing at her eyes.

Great, now she was a bloody mess too. Blood over her entire face now. And, seriously, if she could run, she'd run and be cutting off their heads or feeding them to any zombies herself. But she'd end up getting into a panic attack. It would be worth it to her, though.

"Oh thank god," he muttered under his breath. He didn't think he'd be able to handle it if both her wrist and ankle were infected. Already, he knew he'd have to fix her up fast. "Because it had water and hadn't become another fortress against the world?"

The story made Cronus sick to his stomach. "Oh god... I-I'm so sorry for you, that had to havwe been terrible.." He looked at the expired water in his hands, then up. "I guess they had it coming, then." He stood up and winged the bottle at a display of cans next to them, making it fall apart with a rattling crash. Every zombie in the store- close to about forty of them, most in the deli aisle- immediately turned and headed for the huge noise. They knew well enough that it wasn't one of them, since their eyesight was only good enough to make out the surroundings and quick movements.

One member of the group began yelling at someone in the back for knocking over the display, then the raiders drew their weapons. Cronus grabbed his rifle. "What now?"

Gunshots went off, the fight had begun!

Latula just nodded and shifted as she heard the raiders getting attacked with a bit of a smile before looking over at him. "I can fix my ankle for now, you keep watch in case anything or anyone comes 'round? And thanks for doing that..." She said quietly and gestured in the direction of the gunshots with a bit of a sigh, tucking her hair behind one of her ears.

"And your lisp is cute, by the way. I had a friend with a wicked lisp. He had issues with pronouncing his S's and C's..." Latula said with a small hum, scratching at her chin. Oh great. More blood on her face now. Oh well, least it wasn't really her own blood. Right now it was the little things that mattered. Another example being she had a cool ally that didn't seem to want to kill her almost immediately.

Peeking around the corner again from her place on the ground, she watched the group shooting at the zombies and counted, out loud, the amount of bullets they've used on them already. Mostly they had pistols, one had a shotgun, and there was a machine gun of sorts that ran out after a few shots.

"It's really no problem." He said and hung onto his gun and checked that it was loaded and ready. Several zombies fell with bullets in their skulls and long-dead blood the color of tar splattered the displays of kid's books and paperbacks as they fell. He kept glancing around to keep up with where everybody was, his hands shaking slightly. A raider was bitten, then had her throat torn out.

Cronus looked over as she mentioned the lisp, and his ears and cheeks turned bright red. He had taken speech therapy for years in elementary school to get rid of it so when it came out, he usually expected minor ridicule and teasing- not compliments. He adjusted his grip on the rifle, still searching for potential enemies. "Wvell, uh, my lil' brother has a stutter, 'nd my dad has it sometimes too. Something to do vwith our teeth? I dunno howv it wvorks, really."

The machine gun's rattle ran out and Cronus could finally hear himself think. He looked around and saw a zombie from another aisle heading toward them, dragging its useless and broken leg behind it. He hefted the rifle, and took a head shot when the shotgun went off. Nobody else heard or saw that.

"I think it suits you." She smiled. "Makes you seem more like a normal kinda guy." Latula said, rolling her eyes from behind her shades before going to the first aid kit, taking out a few things and rolled up her pant leg again to expose her wound. Yeah, she's probably gonna end up screaming in pain or something, should've thought about that, right?

After a moment of thinking, she glanced at Cronus before taking off her belt quickly, biting onto it. Not that she needed her belt to keep her pants up, mostly just for a backup plan in case she heard raiders. Choke them to death. Yep, weird thing to use it for, but it came in handy some days.

Deep breath, Latula... deep breath. She left the corners of her lips free as she whined, grunting as she snapped her ankle back into place, a faint scream going through her teeth before wrapping it up tight. Tight enough to keep it from unhinging, at the very least. And she put in multiple layers so as to guarantee that it wouldn't come undone.

Well, hopefully. And when she finished up, she gave him a thumbs-up when he shot the zombie in the head. Real good timing.

Oh goodness what a compliment! His ears were burning red at that and his cheeks matched not long after, his mind looping that through his head because it meant she didn't think it was stupid or weird like everyone else. She actually liked it. It didn't mean she liked him by extension, but judging on how most women seemed to swoon when exposed to accents, it might mean something was there..? He's reading too much into it.

The scream of pain made him jerk the gun a bit, but luckily he had already put the safety back on. Otherwise he would've shot a raider and drawn their attention to themselves. He set it down next to Latula and bent down to help, papping her knee in response to the thumbs-up.

He watched her put the bandages on and grimaced. It put too much pressure on the ankle muscles when wrapped like that. "Hey, lemme fix that," he murmured before loosening the bandages, "I know first aid." He kept glancing back to see if raiders made it out yet. He wanted to live.

Latula let out a small grunt and took her belt from her mouth with a sigh. "Alright. I trust you. I'll take the rifle and make sure nothin' sneaks up on us," she offered.

"And, like... thanks for helpin' out instead of just being like a raider and just letting me die or get... turned. Ugh, I'd rather be dead than be one of them." She sighed and ran her good hand through her hair, reaching for the rifle.

Latula was a good shot with not only her axe, but with guns too. It's what came from being a gamer and being the number one champion of shooters at the old local arcade... and sometimes actually shooting zombies and people when she had to and had ammo for the gun.

"Alright. Be careful of your wvrist, okay? I'll fix that up once vwe havwe a safer place to stay, and I'll see if I can find a hospital not completely coated in gore for a metal rod."

Latula's thanks made him pause as he unwound her ankle, then he resumed. A small smile tugged at his lips. "Vwell, not evweryone is a heartless bastard. Besides, shouldn't a prince rescue the distressed damsel?" He winked teasingly at her.

"But seriously, it's no problem. In this hellscape of undead and awvful people, vwe gotta stick together." He swiftly wrapped her ankle correctly, not wanting to waste precious time. "Also, vwe might need a doctor for your wrist.. It looks pretty fucking bad."

"Distressed damsel? Damn, almost made it sound like I'm Princess Peach. You Mario or Luigi?" She joked, nodding at him when she was told to be careful of her wrist. "And I don't think there'd be any doctors alive or in the country. Thought they were all evacuated before the outbreak... weren't they? That's the last I heard, anyways." Latula sighed, aiming with the rifle to scan the area carefully.

"But man, I really miss havin' doctors. Pretty much just on my own tryin' to use sticks or somethin' to just have things be at least a little more under control and able to be in their right places. Or stop bleeding..." She said, also looking behind herself a little just to be sure nothing would be sneaking up from behind.

And then she heard no more fighting. Well, was that a good or bad thing? Depends on if they were dead, turned, or if there were still the zombies. Or, even worse, the people were still alive. Not likely though since there'd be more talking anyways.

"Hm, Luigi's taller," he said in jest. "Maybe I'm him." He looked over with a teasing grin and wiggled his eyebrow. "Then again, Mario gets the princess in the end~" He winked, then started laughing a bit. "Jus' kiddin', Tula."

"Same! I only have theoretical skills at doctorin', and I feel like I'll fuck up evwerytime," he confessed. "Small demonstrations and bookvwork only go so far."

The sound of silence was disconcerting once he stopped talking, and he felt uneasy. Was there anyone left? He stood up and grabbed the handle of his blade, peering at the ends of the aisle before sneaking to the end of one. He held a finger to his lips, looking back to Latula, then he looked around for enemies. No chancing this shit, ever.

Latula had to hold back a laugh, letting out a small laugh into her hand instead. To anyone that could smell, it would smell like blood. Good thing she couldn't smell anything. "Think I'm more Princess Daisy anyways, Cro." She said and stuck out her tongue playfully. "And as long as it's just wrapped up good, I'll be okay. For the most part, anyway." She said and nodded when he put his finger to his lips. Okay, she had to admit that Cronus was cute. Okay, no, sexy. The damn apocalypse though...

No, no thinking like that. Kinda rule number one in the apocalypse: try not to trust too many people. Even if they have a radical lisp and help save your ass. Then she heard a noise behind her and took up the rifle to put it on her lap with her axe, scooting back by using her elbows. Shit, there was still a raider left. Looking back at Cronus, she lightly tapped the ground to maybe get his attention rather than the raider's attention.

Latula was such a sweet sucked that they only had met because of the literal apocalypse and several near-death experiences. If the world hadn't gone to fucking shit, he would've asked her to the movies or out to that 50s-themed diner that seemed to be in every freaking town. Maybe even share a strawberry milkshake, see if she liked dipping her fries in it too..? Such a fucking shame.

The tapping drew his attention back to Latula and he looked over, following the tilt and estimated gaze behind her glasses to see a raider. Fuck, fucking fucker fuck. Did they have a gun? Cronus did not want to dig another bullet out of his leg, that was a terribly stressful ordeal with zombies in the hospital with him and no anesthesia. He sincerely hoped the guy didn't have the machine gun.

He sneaked back to Latula, worry on his face, and whispered to her. "Didn't get a good look, did he havwe a gun?" He moved back without more than a glimpse, because if he stayed for too long he might be spotted, and then they'll be the ones splattering the floor instead. Cronus couldn't let that happen; he had his family to find.

Latula looked out again and looked back at Cronus with a nod. "Yeah. But he doesn't know how to use it. I can tell by the hold he's got. And it doesn't look like it's loaded by the way he's holding the thing. Though it could have, like... one or two bullets in it?" She whispered back and squinted to get a better look at the guy.

"Just a pistol, though. He's got a knife on him, but that's about it." Latula nodded and looked at him, holding her axe, but didn't dare move any further or do anything else to possibly attract attention from the dude. Didn't want to risk both their asses.

"Game plan, Cro?" She whispered, gnawing at her lip out of habit. At least she wasn't going crazy and getting into a panic attack. Yet. Hopefully it wouldn't come down to that or she'd be dead within seconds.

Cronus listened to Latula's examination and nodded, finding it to be accurate with his knowledge of weaponry. He knew far more about wielding rifles, however, so he'd trust Latula on her experience with pistols. Either way, she's probably right.

"Should scare easily, if he's that under-equipped," he muttered to himself. He started to formulate a plan, then hit a road stop. What if the guy hadn't really wanted to be a raider? He'd be alone, scared, and defenseless... Maybe they should befriend him?

"Tula, let's try to talk to him. He can't be more than fourteen, we should see if he'll join us," he pleaded quietly. "He's just a kid, and doesn't ewven know vwhat to do wvith a gun." He kept his voice down, still not wanting to be shot.

Latula just nodded with a sigh. "You talk, I'm not gonna lie, but... I'm kinda feeling like I'm gonna pass out. Dealing with a smashed ankle and bad wrist ain't gonna end up too good," she said quietly and brought her bag over to her so she could at least let her head be comfortable if she passed out. "If the kid tries to loot or shoot me..." Latula started before laying down completely, passing right out before she could finish the sentence.

Lack of blood and sleep did a number on her body and it made her pass out like this. If she could think clearly, she'd be scared that Cronus would be the one to kill her. Or worse; leave her behind. That's right about when the kid appeared around the corner with his pistol held in front of him in defense.

"Gimme your motherfuckin' supplies or I'll put this bullet in your head, brother. I'd say this here bullet's for her head, but she's all good as dead, I think..." he said. He looked about sixteen, maybe seventeen, and wore face paint. He also wore purple pants, a black shirt that read 'DARK CARNIVAL', and a black sweater with a skeleton pattern on it. If anyone was in his mind, the sweater had once been his brother's and he took it to keep himself warm and somewhat protected from bites. Or so he'd believe.

But there was also a bite mark on his neck that was mostly hidden by the top of the sweater.

"Oh-" Well she was out, and he was all alone. Cronus felt like he just fucked up big time, a cold sweat breaking out on his back. He had hoped Latula would have his back if something happened, but he only had his own judgement and ideas now. FUCK. He turned once he heard the kid speak and swallowed, holding one hand up defensively.

"Take it easy, Jesus Christ. I only got two bags of Cheezits from a vwending machine, and she only has pads." He tried to relax some. "We have nothing for you to take-" He spotted the zombie bite on the guy's neck and his eyes widened. "Uh, you should maybe pat yer neck, I think one got you." Shit, well this had gone fucking pear-shaped. His mind was already racing, and at this point he figured he'd either bite the bullet and let himself be shot, and take the guy's head off with the kukri in his hand. There was always another option, though.

"I could fix you up, if you find a med kit from the pharmacy. I mean, this place is full of supplies, so it doesn't make much sense to rob us when it's practically utopia for supplies all around you," he added. "Plus I have some medical knowledge."

The kid frowned slightly and pat his neck, soon shaking his head. "Motherfucker, this was from yesterday, brother. Ain't no fixin' it. Fuck, I didn't know it was still all up and bleedin' still. And what in the motherfuck's a 'vwending' machine?" He asked, making a face at the other guy's lisp. "Man, that's a freaky lisp." He said before starting to laugh at him, wiping at an eye for good measure.

"The babe got that too?" He asked, going and nudging Latula's arm with his foot. Big mistake as her hand darted and grabbed his leg, making him fall over.

"Don't call me a babe, man... I could, like... cut your head off, but... you're lucky I'm too tired to do that." Latula muttered, raising at eyebrow when he aimed his pistol at her. "And you could put that away, there's nothing in there. You fuckin' painted a nerf gun to make it LOOK like a real pistol!" She grinned, making the guy frown in confusion.

"This is a real one. Ain't paint on this pistol, y'bitch." The kid said, keeping the pistol aimed at her. "It's all the real deal."

"If it is... shoot me and let's see if there're actually bullets in there." Shit, she really was gambling her life now, wasn't she? But the request had the guy shaking slightly as he only glared at her.

Okay, ouch. He looked down for a couple seconds, not letting that familiar twinge of pain show on his face. Okay, no more lisp then. The kid didn't have to be a jackass, it wasn't like he could help it at times. It came out when he was nervous occasionally, and he was still nervous because the kid had a gun. When Cronus saw her grab the guy's foot, a tense spot in his spine relaxed. Oh thank god, he's not alone. He smiled just a smidgen when the kid fell over, then wiped it off his face before the other could notice. Nope, no shenanigans.

"She's good with a blade," he added before Latula told the guy his pistol was fake. Wait, was it? He couldn't fully tell, since his contacts dried out ages ago and the kid was too close for him to look at well. Damn farsightedness.

"No, Tula! Nobody is shooting anybody, because I am not dealing with either the dead body of possibly the only decent person I've found in months, or fixing yet another goddamn bullet hole!" He shot down her idea immediately. Bad Latula, no being shot. "If anyone gets shot, it'll be me in the leg, or nothing." He knew how to fix that up, and has before.

"Real a blade... throwin' or slashin'. And saying things like that about that cute lisp isn't gonna let ya go too far in life," Latula said and narrowed her eyes at the guy from her shades. She didn't really like bullies, having been bullied in her life and dealing with an upset sister who got picked on for being blind...

"Yeah, you all up and tell her what to do. Guy's gotta have control over their girls, know what I'm all up and sayin'?" The guy snickered and looked at Cronus, aiming his pistol before Latula grabbed his wrist to hit a pressure point. "Ahh! Fuckin' bitch!" He snapped as he dropped the pistol to the ground to rub at his wrist.

Maybe it was a good idea, maybe it wasn't, who knows?

Latula then picked up the gun and aimed it at the ground, pulled the trigger and...water. "Your pistol's got issues if it's sprayin' water. This fresh water?"

Latula was.. sticking up for him on the lisp thing? Wow. That... that was a new concept. Usually he just ignored the jackasses that insulted it or covered it up. Either way, Cronus was falling for Latula little by little. She was the most decent person he had met in the past five months of zombie hell. She actually seemed to like him, didn't make him leave, and thought his lisp was cute. Fucking doki doki.

"Hey, I'm not in control of her-" And now the pistol was in Latula's hands. Haha, take that, you jackass. "-because she is her own woman, and saying that I need to is extremely sexist, stupid, and wrong because if anything, she'd be in charge of me." He crossed his arms, shrugging. "I'm just the medic."

Cronus watched her squeeze the trigger and squinted slightly, expecting a loud bang. Thank goodness it was just water! "Don't drink that, that water is old. It's turning brackish," he warned with a small squint.

"Yeah, this is my medic." Latula grinned and gave Cronus' knee a pat while still holding the water pistol. "And I don't really like people pickin' on others." She said before deciding to squirt the gun at the guy, trying not to laugh as the guy made a face and wiped off his face in case there was the small chance of zombies getting at them. That could've gotten her in deep shit, but seeing the dude's reaction was totally beyond worth it!

"Fuckin' bitch." The guy muttered at her, wiping off his face as he narrowed his eyes at her. Oh, bring it on if he was gonna try and fight her at all. Did the guy have a chance? She doubted that. Especially when he was totally outnumbered and only had a knife to defend himself.

"Really wanna fight? Way too early for that." She sighed, her hand still on Cronus' knee. Hey, she'll take it off if he told her to. Didn't feel like making a cute guy uncomfortable and maybe hate her or something, right?

Cronus chuckled just a smidgen as she squirted the guy in the face paint, then realized that oh hey, she was touching his knee.

Physical contact, how do? It had been ages since he received any positive physical attention. Been what, a year and a half? So he kind of just- leaned against her leg the barest bit. He hoped it was her good one. "We wouldn't want to fight you, mostly because you're like us- another human trying to make it in this hellhole world, and desperate for food and water." He shifted his rifle strap to his shoulder and rubbed his eyes. No, don't yawn- he yawned widely, showing off fairly sharp-looking canines. Ah, the Ampora legacy- unnaturally straight and sharp-looking teeth. Like hell he'd make her move. He eyed down the new guy before sticking out a hand. "I'm Cronus Ampora; what's your name?" Hey, an olive branch isn't always the sturdiest but sometimes it's all you have.

Latula shifted slightly at feeling him lean on her good leg, though didn't really mind it as she kept her eyes on the other guy. "And I'm Latula Pyrope." She said, deciding to follow Cronus' lead. Well, for the most part. She wasn't about to stick a hand out for a shake.

"Y'got weird ass teeth." The guy huffed and sighed in slight defeat, taking Cronus' hand to shake it. "Gamzee Makara. Not like them last names matter, but I heard of Latula Pyrope. You all up and had some real famous channel on the internet, right? And all scared playin'-"

"Yeah yeah, the most rad chick ever on the internet scared to death playing the first night on Five Nights At Freddy's..." Latula groaned and shuddered with a small whine at the memory. She hated having to play that game, and for what? Right, all her fans suggested it on every other video she'd put up. Wonder if Cronus knew about her channel at all. Not that she'd care or anything if he did.

Okay, so it'd be a pretty rad thing if he's heard of her channel and seen her do some sick tricks on her board, but she hasn't met a lot of people who knew her by her channel. And then there's that dick who knows her for screaming at an animatronic thing from a video game when it appeared in front of a security camera. Yep, that might've been the most popular video back in the day.

Cronus shook back, shrugging off the teeth thing. It wasn't something he could help, unlike his lisp. He was a rather strange individual, come to think of it. It didn't matter as much anymore, though. After all, when a zombie is trying to eat your face, you tend not to care as much about how it perceives you. Maybe that's why Cronus was alone most of the time. "Wait, Five Nights At Freddy's?" He shuddered a bit, taking his hand back. "Hate that game. My roommate tried to make me play it... Yeah, no. I broke the computer screen. I fuckin' hate jump scares," he interjected. "I don't get how people can play horror games like that."

Oh, Latula had a gaming channel? That would be a cool thing to watch. It's too bad wifi and Internet went down basically everywhere. Everything and anything online was lost immediately. At least in America. There's no news on what happened in Europe or the rest of the world, so it might still be okay outside of North America. Maybe if they found a working boat? That dream was for another day, however. "But yeah, I get where Tula's comin' from. It's a creepy-ass game, and I thank whatever deity there is that the Internet took that down with it. Good riddance!"

"Finally, someone understands me!" Latula grinned and gave Cronus' knee a small squeeze before patting it again. "That gave me nightmares for the whole year." She said and shuddered as well. Why'd Gamzee have to bring it up now of all times?

"Man, the two of you're all cowards." Gamzee said and made a face before looking at Latula. "I got some wicked painkillers if you're in all sorts of pain from that. It'll make you all extremely tired, though. So, I mean, if we move to a safer spot..."

"Not buyin' it." Yeah, she didn't really trust Gamzee yet. It'll be hard to trust him after he's put down Cro because of the way he talked. She thought it was cute and no one could tell her different.

"You're gonna keep bein' in pain, then. Why don't you tell her how bad an idea it is for her to refuse what I'm all tryin' to give her, Cronus?" Gamzee asked, looking at Cronus now.

That definitely helped his self-esteem a bit. Cronus had some shit self-esteem, and Latula was definitely helping with that issue. He smiled up at the little squeeze, then looked to Gamzee. "Well, considering the zombie scares I've had, I could probably handle it better now; but hey, it's not like I could play it again and do anything but remember how I did in the past," he pointed out.

He stared Gamzee down once he mentioned painkillers, and held out a hand. "Lemme see them." As the medic in charge, Cronus felt he should check the pills or substance because he didn't want anything happening, just in case. "I want to see what is stamped on the pills or the bottle."

"It's actually not a bad idea, considering we don't know what's in it and it could be something potentially lethal or addictive," he pointed out. "So please, let me look at the meds first."

"It's all just codeine." Gamzee shrugged and took out the small bottle he had, tossing it right into his hand that was held out for it, Latula freezing as she saw the pill bottle and pursed her lips at hearing what it was. She remembered having to take them after her nose surgery and could easily remember having a noob doctor fixing it up without knowing the medication she was on for her anxiety. Really bad side effect that she'd rather never have happen again. Like, EVER.

"I don't do codeine. I... can't do codeine." Latula said and shook her head some more to protest.

"But it's a good painkiller and it'll help with your pain. It's like them gods'll be watchin' after ya with your hurtin'." Gamzee sighed and pulled the hood from his sweater up over his head, seeing the sun was going down a little and getting cold.

Cronus inspected the bottle as soon as it was in his hand, checking the safety warnings on what not to have it with. He glanced at Latula, watching her have her little flashback moment and raising an eyebrow. "What's your medication, Tula? I wanna make sure this won't fuck with your meds," Cronus asked. He didn't know what she was taking or what it was for, so he needed to make sure. He glanced to Gamzee and watched him pull his hood up. That made the other guy look rather imposing. He rubbed over his forearm, wishing he hadn't lost his cloth jacket. He needed a hoodie or something.

Latula blinked slightly and frowned at the question. How didn't she know what meds she was taking?! "I- um... can't remember. All I remember is I was tired a lot and when I woke up, Mom would try and make me eat, but I couldn't because I'd puke. Shit, could hardly breathe..." She said and looked down, shivering slightly. Yeah, she used to have a blanket in her bed and some raiders took it. Wouldn't blame them with how cold it could get. "And sleeping all the time in our case... wouldn't be too good. And, I mean, puking? That'd get anyone's attention." Latula added, wrapping her good arm around herself to rub at one of her arms. The long-sleeved shirt she wore had some tears in the arms of it from the earlier attack of the zombie and raiders before that. Damn, she was cold! With another shiver, she scooted a bit closer to Cronus to maybe keep herself a little warmer?

"Motherfuck, how're you alive from that? Yeah, guess she shouldn't be takin' that if that happened last time she took it ever." Gamzee said with a nod. Couldn't blame him for trying to help out, right?

Cronus listened and slowly made a face as Latula told about her symptoms. "Jesus fucking Christ, Tula! The doctor must have made a huge fuck up if THOSE were your symptoms!" That just made him upset. What doctor fucked up that badly and got away with it? "Your parents should have sued them for malpractice. That'd be lethal in our case. You'd wake up either undead, or just never wake up," he muttered under his breath. What a depressing topic. He took a deep breath.

When he was leaned against, he cautiously wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "We should resupply and grab some of the clothes on the rack. We don't know what will happen next, and we should climb up above floor level so we can fix you up, Tula. At least, until we can find a hospital." He rubbed her far shoulder.

He looked up to Gamzee and handed the medicine back. "Take good care of that, okay? I want you to tell me if you feel anything at all out of the ordinary, but don't take anything unless I know." He was worried about the bite mark, but also didn't want to murder the new guy. Dick move, bro.

Latula let out a small laugh and nodded. "Yeah, Mom did. And won. Lucky to have a Mom as a lawyer and no Dad, right?" She said with a bit of a smile, moving the slightest bit closer when Cronus didn't move away from her and rested her head on his shoulder. She, in all honesty, was a major cuddler. She'd put up her rad girl routine to hide it, but she liked to cuddle if she was upset or, in this case, cold.

Gamzee looked at Cronus and only shrugged, putting it back in his bag. "How're we gonna bring her up? Don't look like she could walk." He said, nodding to Latula and she just sighed with a small yawn. "And there ain't no need to be all worryin' about my motherfuckin' bite." He shrugged, putting his hands in his pockets. Yep, all nice and warm.

"We're both cold and I bet he'd be able to carry me up or something." Latula said with another wide yawn as she leaned a little closer to Cronus. Damn, he was warm. And comfy. And... weirdly soft? It didn't make sense, but she thought he was soft.

"Yeah, lawyer Moms are hella cool," he replied with a small smile. He accepted her chin on his shoulder, despite the slight boniness, and leaned his head on hers. He liked having a friend.

Cuddling is the absolute best shit ever, and Cronus will never ever get enough of it. Ever.

"I was going to go up first and haul her up," he confessed. "Would that be too hard on your arms or waist, Tula? I don't vwant to hurt you." He turned a bit to face her.

"Yeah, we need new clothes and blankets.." He wasn't really soft, but warm? Yes. He could definitely use a hoodie, however. He got cold easily, but everyone said he was always warm as hell.

Latula just shrugged with her good arm. "I... had worse pain. You could haul me up, long as it means y'can fix my wrist after, right Cro?" she smiled and yawned again, leaning a bit more against him while she continued to shiver slightly.

"Man, I ain't gonna be all up and used to your freaky ass-"

"It's cute, ya jackass." Latula huffed and looked at Cronus, squeezing his cheek playfully. "All lisps are rad." She shrugged before letting go of his cheek with a little sigh, rubbing her eyes from under her shades.

"Then, uh... what the motherfuck happened to your face? All kindsa blood over it." Gamzee asked her and made a face.

Oh yeah, almost forgot about that. "When you kill a zombie with an axe close range... there's gotta be blood somewhere on your body. But not like I'm drinking it down, just mainly gets on my hands or close. Sometimes with some splatter on my face, but I hardly really focus on that since there's something more important than look? You know... trying to survive everything... not turn into one of those things..." Latula said with a shrug.

"'Course I'll fix you up," he replied as he looped an arm around her to share his warmth. He didn't have much, but he's trying at least. It's better than not attempting.

He sighed as he heard Gamzee start in on his lisp again. Cronus was really starting to get sick of people making it into some huge deal, considering he let it slip ONCE. Fucking once, Gamzee. Jesus Christ.

He smiled back at Latula, still extremely grateful to have her around. She liked the lisp and wasn't going to let Gamzee ride on him about it, and she was warm and soft and really nice- Cronus your crush is showing hardcore.

Cronus took a moment to look her over and winced. "With semi-open injuries, you should change into clean clothes before there's risk of infection or overexposure to the virus," he said quietly. "Wouldn't want you to eat my face while I scraped zombie gunk out of your wrist; that'd ruin my whole day."

"I don't think there'd be clean female clothes, Cro..." Latula said, scratching her head a little with a bit of a frown when Gamzee just snickered at her comment.

"Y'all are cute. You a thing?" Gamzee asked, nodding at her mostly and that question only made her cheeks begin to slowly redden, showing a few freckles if they could be seen from behind the blood on her face. Fuck, she's never really thought about it like that. C'mon, she's met Cronus maybe around an hour or something and already there might be something there. And it just started showing because some guy asked about it.

Great, now she couldn't answer that. "How about you go look for girl clothes for us, huh?" Latula huffed and Gamzee only smirked and shook his head.

"Gimme a weapon, then. Gotta protect myself if somethin attacks me." Gamzee shrugged, nodding to the axe beside her. "How's about your axe helps out?" He asked and Latula let out a sigh, nodding.

"I got another thing to use as a weapon anyways that could've been used as a weapon or something. Not giving it up, though." Latula said, watching Gamzee take her axe. She could read people well and knew that she could trust this guy enough to tell him to look for clean clothes for her.

And, okay, she didn't want to be alone with him if she made Cronus get the clothes instead.

Cronus's ears and neck grew red at the insinuation, and he tried to think of something to say. When nothing came, he just kept his mouth shut and rubbed a shoulder. He certainly wouldn't MIND being a thing with Latula, but they barely knew each other. Usually that means it's not a good idea. "Yeah, and maybe a hoodie? I'm a size medium," he added onto Latula's question. He was seriously cold, okay? Leather doesn't retain as much heat, not with the lining being so thin.

Cronus was a tad wary as Gamzee took the axe, and tensed just a bit. He needed to know he could trust Gamzee completely before that would ever go away, and he didn't yet. For all he knew, Gamzee might still be innocent, or maybe some of the sneakier raiders rubbed off on him.

He leaned a bit more on Tula, resting his cheek on her thigh. He breathed deeply, closing his eyes, and imagined the musty, dirty smell was fresh potting soil from the garden at home. He missed his family... He wanted to see Eridan again.

Latula nodded and looked down. "Anythin' above an extra small for me... and some blankets, if there's any!" she said, looking down at Cronus when his cheek was on her thigh and blushed slightly. Okay, this reminded her of something her old boyfriend would do when he was upset or just wanted to cuddle.

"Long as the two a you stay put, I'll up and do my motherfuckin' best, so long as the Messiahs lead the way to it all." Gamzee nodded before going to search for anything they'd need.

Latula scratched her head slightly before slowly combing her fingers through his hair as her good foot brought her bag over to them. Yeah, she kept her bag close for a reason since it didn't just carry around pads. "You alright, Cro?" She asked and continued to gently stroke his hair. Of course she'd stop if he asked her to, but she figured that it'd help them both calm down in this situation.

Cronus never had anybody like that for his own since boys-only private schools made encounters with girls hard, especially since there were some really strict rules. He hadn't dated, ever. He had no social skills in that particular area. None whatsoever.

"We'll be here, Gamz. Don't take too long," he told the younger man, "I might get worried and come after you if you don't come back soon." Cronus' eyes closed as she ran her fingers in his hair, and he wished he was part-cat just for a moment, so she could know how much he loved it. He really loved physical affection, like nothing else. "Mhm, 'm okay. Just like bein' close," he mumbled. He'd never ask her to stop unless they were in danger. It's too enjoyable!

"Like bein' close, huh?" Latula smiled and continued to comb his hair with her fingers before coughing into her arm, shivering slightly. Ugh, this felt shitty. Cold, maybe sick, in a ton of pain that would be real prone to infection... well, there's something she'd rather not think about since she had a friend for right now.

Who knows how long that'd last, though? Might change when he sees her have a mad panic attack one of these days. Probably would come sooner than later. Maybe and hopefully it wouldn't, though? For now, she settled for chilling with Cronus like this. She missed cuddling, really. "You really are just some teddy bear or something, aren't you?" Latula smiled and shut her eyes while her fingers continued to go through his hair, occasionally twirling a strand around her index finger. Yeah. This was nice.

Cronus nodded just a little in reply, still humming and enjoying her fingers running through his hair. Yes, give him physical affection, it makes him feel like you truly care about it. The cough made him glance up a bit and lift his chin to look up at her properly. "You okay? That didn't sound good."

He was a bit scared for Latula; she was injured pretty fucking terribly, in a hellscape where there really aren't any doctors and the hospitals's supplies are near impossible to get to with that many zombies occupying the building, and Cro only had what he knew from theory and online videos to go from. He wasn't a professional..

"Mm, sometimes." His eyes closed and he let his head drop again, revealing the back of his head to her. There are some long-since faded scars, and one cut with stitches still in it. Looked fairly fresh, maybe two or three weeks old.

Latula shook her head. "I might be okay... just hella cold." She explained and rubbed her eyes a moment, taking her hand out of his hair for that small bit. "And I ain't hacking up a lung yet." She said with a bit of a smile before ruffling his hair lightly.

She'd be okay if there was anything in any hospital they'd hopefully cross by later. Or hey, if there was a doctor left, that'd be cool. When she saw the scars on the back of his head, she frowned slightly and gently traced her fingers over them. "What're those nasties from?" She asked before going back to stroking his hair.

Then she paused, hearing something. "Hey, you hear that?" Latula frowned. Something definitely wasn't right, especially if she was hearing snarling and groaning coming closer to their aisle.

Slowly reaching to her bag, she unzipped it to take out a cane. Or what seemed to be a cane. "I hardly ever use this... belonged to my sis." Latula explained before her other hand left his hair to pull it apart, showing that it was a pair of swords. "Pretty rad though, right?"

"Tula, you sound like you're getting sick..." Cronus frowned a little and patted the side of her thigh, rubbing it with his thumb. "I want you to tell me if you feel anything worse, okay?" Being anything but in top shape and healthy could mean certain death. He doesn't want her to die, even if they really just met. He doesn't want to be alone...

"Ah, those?" He reached his free hand back and traced over one of the scars. "Raider who jacked my shit hit me over the head with a glass bottle to make sure I stayed out while they robbed me. Didn't work as well as they hoped... But y'know, it waylaid me from the store I was going to. Had to find a decent couple mirrors to sew myself up."

He paused too, and his hand went to the kukri. "Mhm." He pulled himself away from Latula and stood, ready to kill his opponent on sight. He glanced back and gave Latula a small smile, just before the zombie turned the corner and lunged. He let out a strangled yelp and lashed out with the hilt of the blade, breaking the zombie's jaw. He felt something on his back before kicking at the undead's legs, forcing it to drop to its knees, then drove the kukri into its skull. He panted, his back wet with sticky-warm sweat. He felt an aching on his back, under his shirt, but dismissed it as delusion. He turned to Latula.

"Wouldn't be surprised if I was sick." Latula chuckled and nodded at his story, tracing her thumb over the stitches, watching the zombie attack him from behind. See, this is why you don't eyeball a girl when danger's extremely close. Hell, she had a good grip on the handle of one of the blades when she saw it jump him. No way was she about to lose her new friend in this- no, okay, he looked fine.

And then a zombie launched itself at her and she let out a shout, her arms coming up as her blade went across its neck to decapitate it. Unfortunately, the zombie had been turned recently.

"Oh shit..." Latula panted as she stared at the dead body of Gamzee. "He was a zombie, I swear!" She blurted out in case he thought she killed him because he just scared her or something. Then she let out a small whine and curled in on herself best she could. No, c'mon anxiety, not now of all times!

Cronus could handle himself. He was more worried about Latula than himself, really. She was injured, and although the cane swords were badass he couldn't account for how well they'd work. They could be too thin and snap once they hit bone; he just didn't know if it'd work. Either way, he turned to see her take out Gamzee and his eyes widen. Oh shit.

"Tula-!" She was already curling in and he hurried over, engulfing her in a hug. He hid her face in his chest so she wouldn't have to look at the bodies. "Tula, it's okay, I know he was, he was already bitten.." He pet her hair soothingly, or at least what he hoped was. "...vwe can't stay here. VWe should grab what we can and leave, before anything else happens."

His heart beating a rapid allegro, he pulled back and scanned the aisle. No more zombies in their immediate vicinity. "I don't think we can stay here, it'd be too difficult to set up a camp above floor level with you injured. Let's find an apartment, barricade it, and use the fire escape for travel instead. We can always come back here for supplies, yeah?" He felt a stinging on his lower back, but ignored it. He was imagining things, or was he? The fake nails of the zombie, chipped and cracked, dripped a few drops of bright red blood on the floor.

Latula nodded slowly and grabbed onto the front of his shirt, shaking slightly as she took in a few deep breaths. "Y-yeah... yeah..." She said with another deep breath, loosening her hold on his shirt a little bit when he pet her hair. She liked her hair being pet like that too.

"Yeah..." She murmured and looked around him and squeaked. "What's that!?" She hissed into his shirt, reaching her good arm around him to quickly yank out one of the fake nails. Ew, those brought back memories. One of her friends used to wear fake nails and tried getting her to wear some and there was some bad allergic reaction to the damn glue they used to glue them on.

"Just... lemme get those out for you, kay?" Latula shrugged, just wanting to do something, pretty much anything for him right now. And those things looked like they hurt. She knew they probably did, her old friend having nearly tore up some poor dude's shirt when there was some nasty business going on. Okay, so maybe one of those times was with her, but it was an experimental stage where she went through a bi stage. "Please, Cro?"

Cronus kept his voice soft and soothing as he hummed, trying to calm her. Shit like that could really fuck you up, even if you weren't on medication for something. He wished he could say he never did anything like that.. Josie had been a sweet lady. She was pretty much the only person who treated him like he wasn't going to try and hurt her. Too bad she had an infected scratch from a dog.

He lifted his head and turned slightly to see if there was a zombie and "OH JESUS FUCKING CHRIST OW!" His back straightened from the pain and he gritted his teeth, quickly turning to Latula. "What the hell, Latula?! That hurt!" The back of his white shirt was staining red under his leather jacket, where the zombie had grabbed underneath the protective jacket.

"Get what ou-?" He saw the nail in her hand and paled slightly. Oh. Shit. Guess he wasn't imagining the throbbing. "...okay, but I'll need you to disinfect it afterwards." He knelt and grabbed the med kit from his bag, then shrugged off his jacket and pulled his shirt off, hissing in pain as it tugged several chips of nail up and dug it in. "Fuuuck!" He gritted his teeth, then passed her the med kit and grabbed his rifle. "Watch your back, and listen for more zombies. I'll try to be as quiet as I can."

"Sorry!" Latula said, shrinking back slightly when he yelled. Mainly just some loud flashbacks from her past, nothing worth dwelling on right now. "Sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry I'm sorry, shit!" She whispered and let go of him in time to see him removing his jacket and shirt.

That was one thing she wasn't expecting. When he gave her the med kit and something to do, all she could do was nod. "Okay. Yeah, I'll disinfect it." Latula said, moving a bit to get to his back. Damn, it looked like it was hurting. "And stay still as you can, don't wanna fuck shit up." She sighed and put a hand on his back to give it a light pat before taking out a few things from the med kit.

"Oookay..." Latula muttered and wiped off some blood, being as gentle as she could and bit her lip. "Pulling out a nail in three... two... and one." She muttered, yanking it out quickly before rubbing some disinfectant over it while humming lightly. She was still listening out for zombies, of course, but needed to do something to calm herself, so humming a tune was just one of those things.

She repeated this process until all the nails were out, wiping and disinfecting them all again just in case. "Okay... they're out now." Latula said, brushing off his back with the fake nails underneath one of the aisle blockers. Then she wiped off her hands on her shirt, rubbing his back to try and get his mind off the pain from the fake nails. "Y'alright now?"

"Fuck... gah, I'm sorry, it's not your fault," he quickly replied before hugging her again. "I'm sorry for scaring you, that just really hurt." He felt so fucking guilty for making her panic, a lead weight growing in his rib cage. Fuck.

"Okay, thanks Tula," he replied as she agreed to do that. "I'll try to be still, but you might need the tweezers for the deeper bits, if there are any." This was going to hurt like a fucker, wasn't it? Well, hopefully they wouldn't get infected.. He didn't want to get sick, or to turn, or worse- to be one of those unlucky fuckers who could've made it, but their companion, or companions shot them, killed them before it could happen. That would be the worst.

Cronus forced himself to stare at the ground as she yanked the pieces out of his skin, the strap of the rifle between his teeth. He wished he had a leather belt instead, but his had been stolen a while back. His jaw clenched with each yank, and he hissed at the sting of disinfectant, pain flaring up. He might not be able to wear his satchel against his lower back until it healed... Whatever.

He didn't hear any zombies, but maybe he was too busy trying not to scream to focus on watching their twelve. Once she stopped, he relaxed a bit and pulled the strap from between his teeth, opening his eyes. "Gh..." The rubs helped a bit, but it still bled and ached as he sat up. "Ngh- c-can you hand me th' biggest patch of gauze in there, 'nd the antibacterial shit..?" He needed to wrap it up, and clean it before anything with the virus could get in there.

Latula nodded and rubbed his back a little more before handing him the biggest thing of gauze as well as antibacterials. She didn't know which one to hand him, so she gave him the ones that were in the kit. "There you go. Sorry again..." She muttered and scooted back a bit to rub her wrist. Maybe she's done enough damage to him or something. And now it was probably going to be her fault because she couldn't even stand up without her ankle wanting to give out and his back probably was in enough pain to not help her get out of the aisle.

Sure, there had been some deep bits of nail in him, but she managed to get it all out for him. Least she could really do, even if it meant her wrist's wound opening up again. Not much a big deal...okay, that was a lie. "Holy fuck, I'm so stupid." Latula frowned, scooting to her bag to take out some pads. Yeah, that might be a stupid idea too, but it stopped bleeding and absorbed blood, so her logic was that wrapping pads around her wrist could stop it.

Then again, not like she's been in this situation or even really knew how to fix wounds other than cuts from major wipe outs, but that was about it. Why didn't she take medicine like her friend told her to?! Ugh, she wasn't trained for this stuff! Hell, she could hardly process what was really happening until...she...really... saw... Cronus' back muscles. Like, whoa.

"It's not your fault," he replied in a soothing tone as he took the gauze and antibacterials. Okay, good thing he had spare pants, because that pair would need a wash. He took the mini bottle of rubbing alcohol and poured it on his back, gritting his teeth hard. Army medicine, don't think about it Ampora. After that, he squirted the tubed medicinal cream onto the gauze and spread it around, reaching behind himself and pressing it to the wound. "Mngh...Tula, can ya pass me th' bandages? I need to wrap this." He heard her little revelation and turned to face her, using his legs to spin around. "Fffffuck. Okay." Yeah, swinging that blade around made some muscles rather apparent. Mhm.

"That's one way to do it," he mused as she pulled out a pad. "Might be better if I just fixed it up for you." He grabbed the right-sized gauze pad and opened it, holding that hand out toward her. "Press this onto the vwound, and pass me the bandage please."

Latula just nodded and handed him the bandages, taking the gauze pad to press it to her wrist with a whine. Yeah, this was hurting. Looking back at him, she tried for a smile while trying her best to not look at him too much...good thing she had her rad red shades, though.

"Are you going to be okay? And... don't lie. Please don't lie. I can see liars. It's... a talent of mine, I been told." She said, the gauze pad on her wrist as she rubbed her eyes. If you yawn, Latula, I swear I'll... and she yawned. Great, now he'd think her tongue's infected or something. It used to be pierced, but she took out the piercing just before the zombies started up. Still was a hole there, not like it hurt or anything, though.

"And thanks again. For saving my sorry ass from the zombie and trying to make me feel better and trying to calm me down and using some of your supplies to help out with... all this." Latula said, nodding to her wrist and shrugged at her leg before having to lay down with her head on one of his legs. "Sorry again..."

Cronus really needed to get her to a hospital to fix her up. Her wrist was fucking disastrous, and who knows how bad her ankle could get? Field medicine wouldn't work, that much he knew, and he couldn't lug around the equipment he needed for this. He needed at least four other people for this, an entire wing cleared of zombies and any infections, and at least three hours. Of all these, he had maybe an hour tops if he set up a distraction and cleared the entire fucking hospital, zombies shambling everywhere and leaving rotten flesh all over the floors and furnishings, and only himself. He didn't even have the possibility of Gamzee standing guard anymore. He was alone in this, with minimal knowledge and no help, and he was terrified.

"Okay?" He replied softly as he wrapped the gauze up, using over half the roll before securing it with a safety pin. "The nail thing, yeah. I mean, I got shot in the leg three months back, so... yeah." He took a deep breath to check how secure it was, then pulled his shirt and leather jacket on. Soon he was wrapping her wrist and ankle up in temporary wrappings, anxiously listening for any zom-zoms.

"Hey, no apologizing, okay? I'm happy to help, really. I've been pretty much alone for five months, and I gotta say I'm glad you're the first one to be decent to me and vwant to stick wvith me. I can really be a pain in the ass, most of the time, and I tend to say pickup lines vwhen I'm too nerwvous-" He cut himself off there, and just petted her hair. "And I wvish I had met you before all this happened. I wvish things vweren't terrifying. I wvish I didn't havwe to vworry about food, or clothing, or getting ewven a scratch. I wvish I knew vwhere my Dad and brother are, and if they're okay... I wvish things vwere normal, and I could be a stupid teenager again, a-and that vwe could'wve gone on an a-actual date, and things aren't shitty, and terrifyin', a-and-" He made himself stop because he was tearing up and crying was useless. He sniffled, wiping his eyes quickly with the back of his hand. "I'm r-really startin' t' lose hope."

"Oh..." Latula said and pat his leg softly as she whined at him wrapping up her wrist, hissing through her teeth when she tried not to scream at her ankle being taken care of, looking around instead to get her mind off things. And to keep herself busy, clear her mind, help calm down... Wait, he liked her? She let out a sigh and leaned forward to just hug him now, rubbing one of his arms. "I wish I met you too, Cro. And things were normal. And I didn't have t-to kill my sis." She stuttered, hugging him a bit closer and hoped it wasn't going to hurt his lower back with her head on his shoulder. "And I wish we coulda gone on an actual date, too. I miss milkshakes and fries. And my board... board shop... I miss making boards, too." She sighed, wiping her eyes as she looked outside. "Wish I could've shown you some sweet tricks." She muttered with a frown, tilting her head slightly as she heard something.

"Hey... you hear that?" No, the sounds weren't from any of the biting Z's. No, weren't gunshots either. Fixing her shades, she saw the shutters starting to go down in front of the windows. Shit, this was probably where someone set up shop! Smart people, then...

Cronus hugged her back tightly, burying his face in her hair. He felt pretty damn gross, between all the zombie blood and dirt and sweat that accumulates too quickly from running around, fighting almost every moment of every day. It just seemed almost hopeless, at this point, and this was coming from the guy who tried to keep everyone else uplifted and determined. For Latula's sake, though, he'd keep going and try to help wherever he could.

Cronus's eyes were shut as Latula conveyed her feelings, and was infinitely grateful that she didn't go on a tirade about how 'tears don't help so keep them in your eyes', like Mike did four months back. He glanced up as she asked if he heard something, then the screeching of metal was ringing out and he winced. Ow ow ow, that fucking hurt his ears. He let go of Latula and stood, clutching his kukri in a white-knuckled grip.

"I-I guess vwe should go meet the people that just trapped us in," he said softly before helping Latula to her feet. "Maybe vwe can get them to help us restock, then let us out..?" It probably wasn't likely, though. Most people were out for themselves, and Cronus wasn't sure if the next injuries he saw would be fixable.

Latula just nodded and let out a small whine when he helped her up, gripping onto his arm when she was upright, biting her bottom lip. God damn it, this hurt, but she had some help and that's all that mattered in her eyes. "Maybe... they're nice people?" She asked, looking over at him. There was always that bit of hope, but she took up one of her blades as a just in case thing when there were two voices chatting to each other.

It was only her fault when she stumbled a little, the other people stopping their conversation, one of them saying, "Thtay here. I'll check it out. Don't think about following unlethth I thay tho." They said, slowly approaching their aisle.

The boy looked about maybe sixteen, had blonde hair, red and blue glasses, and had a black shirt with a Gemini symbol on it. But what stuck out the most to Latula was that the kid had one white shoe and one black shoe. "Holy THHIT! Cronuth?! Eridan, come here! I found your brother... with a girl thith time." He said before going over to them, picking up a blanket off the ground when another boy poked his head around the corner.

"No time for hugth right now, we thhould get them to our bathe camp. It lookth like they need medical attention." The first boy said, the other nodding.

The tight grip on Cronus's arm was reassuring. Latula was there, and he wasn't going to let her down. If these guys were raiders, then he'd hide her and fight them himself, wounds or none. He already saved her a couple times, and he'd do it as often as he needed to. She might really be his last hope in things getting better.

The stumble almost took him down too but he helped her up, wincing at the echo of her shoe squeaking on linoleum. Great... He heard the voices and looked up, one hand on his kukri- then he saw who it was. "Captor?" There was nobody else who had both that terrible lisp and 3-D style glasses. His little brother's friend, which means-

Sorry Latula, but as soon as Sollux was attending to her he was tripping over himself to get to Eridan, scooping him up into a bear hug. He's probably crying.

"F-fucking hell I thought you vwere dead Eri I vwas tryin' to get back home and find you 'nd Dad I thought you vwere dead or turned or vworse-" He let out a ragged noise and clung to Eridan tightly, burying his face in his little brother's hair. Looks like they'd make time for hugs because Cronus wouldn't let go any time soon.

"Wow, what'th worthe than being turned?" Sollux frowned, watching Cronus run to Eridan with a huff as he rolled an eye, the blue lens on his glasses was smashed, leaving him with a big patch of gauze over his other eye. Guess it was better than being dead, thank Eridan for saving him there. "Yeah, hug it out for a bit while I take care of your girlfriend here." He said, taking out a few things and waved Latula to make her sit back down.

"Damn dude, what happened to your eye?" Latula asked, only to be told to shut up and sit as still as possible. Well, this definitely wasn't off to a good start with Captor. Can't say she didn't try and make some conversation, right?

Eridan let out a small grunt and hugged him back tightly. "I kneww y'wweren't dead! Kneww y'wweren't turned! Dad said you wwere, but I kneww y'wweren't!" He stuttered, burying his face into Cronus' shirt as they clung to each other with Latula whining in the background while Sollux just grunted.

"Oh my god, thit thtill already and put thith in your mouth, can't have you thcreaming thince I have a big enough headache already." Sollux muttered, putting a leather strap in her hand. "Don't athk or I'll fucking..."

"Soolllll..." Eridan whined, Sollux just rolling his eye and shutting up instead. "Me n Cro're havvin' a moment here..."

Cronus didn't hear Sollux, or he would've replied with, 'being eaten alive by cannibals as they strip the meat from your flesh and you scream.' Or watching. That was pretty fucking horrifying. Poor Mike... The poor bastard had been begging for mercy when it woke up Cronus, who threw up close to four times after he got away. That was a fate worse than death.

The stutters were as familiar and endearing as ever and Cronus didn't dare let go, not even for a second. It hurt just a little bit that his Dad thought he hadn't made it. Apparently Cronus would never be strong enough or good enough for him and he's almost resigned to that by now. "I'm still aliwve a-and kickin', Eri."

Hearing Sollux being such a dick made Cronus look back and give him a glare. "Be nice t' her, a'ight? I swvear t' fookin' god..." Haha, that prep school Boston accent sometimes popped through when he was trying to be threatening. How cute. He fixed Sollux with a small glare. "She's be'n through a lot, Capta."

Sollux looked over at Cronus and narrowed his eye. "I been through thhit too, Ampora! I mean, I LOTHT A FUCKING EYEBALL! Know what? Tell him where and how you found me, Eridan." Sollux huffed, scratching his forehead.

"Er... I found Sol gettin' attacked by raiders and onna them pushed him dowwn," Eridan started while Sollux just blocked them out, "Part a his glasses wwere cracked and a shard wwas in his eye, and... couldn't get the glass piece out. And, I mean..." Eridan stuttered, hugging Cronus a bit tighter. "It wwas horrible..."

"Yeah, ever try throwing thomething with one eyeball?" Sollux grumbled and sighed when Latula waved a hand. "Wow, theriouthly? Huh." He snorted, letting Latula shrug while he worked carefully. "Or try cleaning out the eye thocket? Eridan thaved my athth, thankth for that, but I had to dithinfect my eye... lack thereof."

"That's rough, buddy." How could he really reply to that? Fucking hell and judging by the little brother clinging to him, it was pretty fucking awful. Cro could always pull his trump card, but that can wait for another day. Has he even told anyone about it? Maybe? He can't remember. He has such a shitty memory.

At Sollux's question, he shrugged. "Does it count if it vwas because you have an eye patch from taking a baseball to the eye?" Yeah, sports weren't his strong suit. He's more of the artistic type. After all, he plays guitar!

Cronus petted Eridan's hair down and held him closer, eyes falling shut. "Eri...vwhere's Dad, Eri?" That question just came out. Cronus needed to know, though. "Is he okay..?" He didn't have any particularly strong affection for the guy, but he was still their Dad.

"Yeah, tho don't complain that much, got it?" Yep, Sollux wasn't too happy right about now considering he didn't exactly have his sleeping medication anymore and never really slept and he really hated playing nurse, even though he took a medical course for mainly...no, can't dwell on that too long. "Thhut up and thtay thtill already." He grumbled to Latula.

"And no, a temporary eye patch doethn't count worth thhit." Again, Sollux wasn't in the best mood right now. Did he mention that he was wasting precious time fixing up this girl rather than raiding the bodies of dead and living? Yeah, exactly.

Eridan pursed his lips and shook his head with a weak sniffle, hanging his head. "He... me 'n' him wwere runnin' from a horde and wwe hit a fuckin' dead end. But there wwas a ladder, he boosted me up 'n' told me ta run, and..." He choked out, putting his face onto Cronus' shoulder. "It wwas my fuckin' fault, Cro!"

"No no no Eri, shhh.." He held his little brother closer and petted his hair down in the back, knowing not to mess with the front. Then he remembers that oh yeah, it's the apocalypse and hair gel is harder to find. So he ran his fingers through Eridan's hair, holding him close. "Newver blame yourself, Eri. It gets you novwhere and just upsets you worse." He sighed a bit, then pecked the top of Eridan's head. "It's okay."

So the old man was dead or turned. Well... Eridan's okay. He's okay too. They'd make it through this. He kept petting Eri's hair down, then glances to where Sol was fixing up Latula.

"You twvo holdin' up okay?" Latula's wrist had been in terrible shape when Cronus last saw, and he was pretty sure Sollux couldn't fix it up terribly well without hospital-grade equipment. He focused on taking deep breaths, looking over Latula. "Mental health check."

"How do you even manage to find a girlfriend in the fucking zombie apocalypthe? I mean theriouthly?" Sollux muttered. "Holy thhit, thtop moving. Gonna jutht make thhit worthe..." He grumbled to Latula.

Eridan only shook his head. "But I promised him I'd put him outta his misery if he turned and I just fuckin' ran, Cro..." He sniffed into Cronus' jacket and gripped him a little tighter if possible. "M' mental health check's borderline scarred for life." He said with a weak chuckle.

"Tired ath fuck on my end and thhe'th gonna be okay. I got thome medicine and bandageth to keep her writht and ankle in good condition ath long ath thhe practically thtayth thtill and doethn't put too much preththure on them, if at all. In other wordth... lady'th grounded from thtanding up or moving that arm." Sollux shrugged, wiping the blood onto his shirt.

"She's not my girlfriend," Cronus mumbled as he pressed his face into Eridan's hair. He inhaled deeply, making sure that this memory is forever imprinted on his mind. His first and only reunion with his little brother, this will probably be his last thought if he ever goes down.

"Mine's definitely scarred fer life," he whispered back as he comforted his little brother. If he ever saw their Dad as a zombie, he'd help Eridan fulfill his promise or do it himself. It'd probably help relieve some of the guilt Eridan felt.

"Alright, thanks Sol. Wvish I could pay ya in somethin' vworthwvhile fer yer troubles..." He sighed a bit before he tried to peel himself away from Eridan. "Vwe better get goin', since ya seemed in such a hurry Captor. Tula, you okay t'walk?"

"Huh. Tho, her name'th Tula. And who thaid I wath in a hurry? Jutht wanted to fix her up tho Eridan'd thhut up and then I'd go back to raiding whatever dead bodieth're in thith place now." Sollux snorted with a shrug and stood up, rolling his neck to get it to crack and sighed.

"Nah, name's Latula," she said with a smile and Eridan shook his head as he kept hugging Cronus, refusing to let go. Damn, she wished her sis was still alive so she could hug her like that. "And I don't think I'll be able to walk with what he just said. I shouldn't walk." She shrugged.

"Sollllll... can't Cro stay?" Eridan whined as he kept himself clinging to Cronus, Sollux looking between them both with his one eye before letting out a sigh.

"Yeah. And I'm going to guethth he'll want hith girlfriend to thtay too." Sollux said with a rare smile, going over to pat Cronus on the back before going around the Costco. It's grown to be a sort of home for them. A safe house. They'd have it open during the day for zombies and humans to enter, send the zombies after the humans in some way, and then raid them at night. Terrible, obviously, but it had to be done. And there was no way he was going to go outside. "Wait, Cronuth? You... haven't theen Tuna in the outthide world, have you? Jutht... we thplit after a while, but he'th with Kurloz latht I..." Sollux frowned, shaking his head to get rid of the memory.

"Ah... I see." Well, isn't that a smart idea. Cronus could see that was a smart idea. If it's an enclosed, mostly controlled environment, then it's the best way to get supplies without leaving. Yeah.

A-hem. Eridan's not letting go. Cronus sighed a bit and petted his hair some more, then picked Eridan up and held him like a six year old. He hadn't held his little brother like this since he was seven and Eridan threw another tantrum. Man, memories seem to be sparking up quite a lot today. "Hey, it's okay Eri. You can let go, I'll hold your hand if you vwant," he offered, "but you're squeezin' a bit too tight. Vwell duh, Tula obviously needs help and I'm not leavwin' her behind. Vwe'vwe been through a lot together." Gathering of the lisps, I swear to god. At least Cronus and Eridan's are more coherent than Sollux's most of the time.

Wait holy shit-! Sollux gave him a back pat. Bro, he thought the guy hated him, but he smiled and patted him! Internal celebration was going on until Mituna gets brought up. "Uh, no, actually.. I don't know where he is. I didn't see him out there, but next time we need to go out for supplies, I'll be sure to look for him."

"Oh... well, you guyth thtay the night or whatever. I mean, you're already kinda locked in and the two've you probably need thleep. Eridan, take them to our headquarterth or whatever you call it now. The place thtocked with blanketth and pillowth tho they can get thome thhuteye." Sollux said with a bit of a sigh, going off to where he knew the raiders from earlier had been while spinning a throwing star between his fingers.

"Thanks Sol!" Eridan smiled and squeaked when he was picked up even squirming a little. "I ain't a lil kid, Cro! Put me dowwn so I can take ya 'n' your _not_ girlfriend up ta our sleepin' area..." Okay, so he whined there a little, but he couldn't help it really. Then he leaned closer to Cronus' ear. "But howw'd ya find a girl in times like these?" He whispered with a bit of a smirk.

"Yeah, thanks dude!" Latula said, giving Sollux a wave with her good arm, not daring to really move her leg at all. Didn't want it to keep hurting and, honestly, the kid did a pretty sweet job with her ankle and wrist.

Cronus looked after Sollux with some concern. Ninja stars? Those didn't seem like good weapons, the human arm wouldn't be able to put enough force behind it to decapitate any zombies... He sighed and set Eridan down, patting his head. Good sensible little brother.

"M'kay, see ya Sol! Eri!" That made his ears and neck get all red with embarrassment. "She's not my girlfriend. I mean, vwe just met today!" He sighed as Eridan leaned in, giving him a look. He whispered back, "savwed her from being eaten by a zom, then helped get zoms to eat the raiders after her."

He nudged at Eridan after that, then walked over and picked up Latula bridal-style so he wouldn't hurt her leg or arm. "Lead the vway, o mighty Eridan, to the sleeping area!" What a nerd.

Eridan just smirked at Cronus and shook his head. "Sure she ain't... yet." He said, making sure to whisper the last bit with a chuckle when Latula squeaked as she was picked up.

"I was SO not expecting that, Cro!" Latula laughed, her good arm wrapping around him best she could. Not like she didn't trust him, she's just been dropped a fair bit in her childhood by her friends. Sure, accidental, but still... just a comfort thing. But damn, he had muscles. Girl's gotta appreciate that.

"Alright. Just this wway, then!" Eridan smiled, starting to walk up a small set of stairs and took out a ring of keys, flicking through them before unlocking a thick door. It was probably once the main freezer before everything went to hell. "So, this is our sleepin' room. Best place t'sleep. Good solid doors that wwe'vve zombie-proofed." He said, gesturing around the blanket and pillow filled room. "Pick a spot that ain't the yellow and black spot or Sol'll be pissed." He added with a nod.

Cronus didn't catch the last bit since he was too busy picking up Latula and making sure his arms could hold her. She was a tad lighter than he really expected her to be. Then again, pretty much every scavenger or person not sitting on a stockpile of supplies were malnourished. Food was a severely limited resource in this situation.

"Sorry if I scared ya, but I don't vwant you hurtin' yerself tryin' t' vwalk," Cro explained as he followed Eridan. His arms were actually terribly sore from fighting off those zombies and his lower back ached, but he didn't give a shit about himself in that particular frame of time.

"Sol still obsessed vwith bees?" He snickered as he found a pile that seemed fairly red-based and set Latula down carefully. He stretched afterwards, wincing slightly as the scabbing wounds pulled at the edges a bit. "Damn, I'm super fuckin' sore.." He scoped out a blue pillow he particularly liked and snagged it, tossing it down next to Latula's pile before flopping on it.

Latula just shrugged and rubbed at his arm a little. "All good, Cro. Had worse scares in the past, same general thing but... y'know... raiders and shit." She nodded and smiled a little when she was set down before both she and Eridan frown at seeing him wince.

"Y'alright, Cro? And yes, Sol's still obsessed wwith bees. Can y'blame him? I mean, if wwe had bees, wwe could probably end up growwin' food! Wwe got seeds, had some sun, all wwe needed wwere some bees to keep the seeds healthy." Eridan said, smirking at seeing Cronus flop by Latula. Now THAT was just adorable! "Oh, could I get you anythin' ta eat?" He asked, mostly focused on Latula.

"Mm... got any canned green beans? Or, like... anything else canned that's not chili or other beans that aren't green... otherwise, everything'll be..." Latula giggled, looking down at Cronus when Eridan looked down at him now, though her good hand began combing through his hair slowly. If she had both hands working right, she could probably give his arms or neck or scalp a massage. For now, petting his hair was the only thing she could really do.

Cronus couldn't help it, his lower back still hurt. Would for some time... He shifted positions to scratch at the bandages, the scabs itching. He made himself stop though, because it wasn't good for him.

"Yeah, 'm fine. Bees vwould be great... I think I know vwhere to find certain plants that attract bees. There's books and stuff on it," he added helpfully. "And fresh food... Dear god I miss it. And sweets." He sighed wistfully, looking over to Eridan.

"Oh yeah! There's food here." He grinned. "I wvill take absolutely anything. Especially if it's not dry and crackery. I'm so sick of Cheezits oh my god." He had been about to say something else, but Latula did the easiest thing to disable him; she ran her hand through his hair. He melted into the pillows and blankets, practically purring and humming happily. He was absolutely ecstatic and possibly in heaven.

"But wwould those places evven be safe?" Eridan frowned and shook his head a moment before a wide smile spread over his face. "Remember wwhen Dad wwould come home from fishin' trips and bring back Swwedish chocolates? Oh god, I miss those days..." He replied with a sigh in return. "I'll bring back some canned anchovvies for ya, Cro." He joked before leaving them on their own.

Latula looked down at him and giggled lightly as her fingers continued to comb through his hair. It seemed pretty easy to have the guy relax so much and so fast. "Guess you don't get a lotta affection, huh?" She asked, only removing her fingers from his hair to take off her red shades. "And how's your back?" She added with a frown, putting her shades down somewhere she deemed safe enough before going back to petting his hair. It's honestly been a while since she's had affection too. Her ex-boyfriend was good to her, but then something happened to him and she never saw him again. Had to move away because of her Mom's line of work. It was actually kinda depressing now she thought of it.

"Pro'ly not, but I hawve my blade," he mumbled into his pillow. Eridan might not have even heard him. What a lazy ass. "Yeah.." Those were good days. He sighed wistfully, then snorted at Eridan's little joke. Luckily for Cronus, he actually did like anchovies, mainly on pizza. Take that, lil' bro.

He nodded his head at Latula's question, then sighed softly. "Not many people are friendly, 'nd tryin' t' get a zombie to do it vwouldn't vwork," he said jovially. "I'll jus' stick vwith you."

After a minute or two of pets, he scooted closer and wrapped his arms around her waist, closing his eyes. Mm, her stomach was squishier than his. She must've had a better food stash. He nuzzled her stomach, purring quietly, and squeezed lightly. He was extremely grateful to have her around. Eridan wasn't typically as touchy-feely as Cronus.

Most anchovies they had in stock were the almost moldy ones and Sollux had pointed out that they could be carrying the virus in the can or something. Of course he didn't like them, so he wouldn't be saying that just to have them all for himself, but it was better safe than sorry for the time being.

Latula nodded slowly with another sigh in response before giggling lightly at the joke with another nod. "Yeah... guess there aren't any vegetarian zombies these days." she grinned, though made a noise when he hugged her, looking down at him. Huh, wasn't quite expecting that, but wouldn't complain too much. "Man, you're a cuddler." She smiled and rubbed his back, making sure to avoid touching the scars on his lower back.

"I got some canned fruits, some canned vegetables, some canned meat, and marshmallowws. Don't tell Sol I brought ovver the marshmallowws, though... oh, you twwo're swweet together." Eridan smiled as he came in with a large bag of stuff that also contained plastic cutlery. "Me n Sol havve our owwn utensils that wwe keep to ourselvves. Easier that wway so y'don't use your fingers." He said and put down the bag by them.

Yeah no, those definitely wouldn't fly. You'd think they'd last, since they were usually canned, but apparently it was way later than the expiration date on practically everything. They needed to find a way to make like, a garden- Cronus had an idea.

"Yeah, but I have an idea for a garden. Vwe use the roof, vwhere the zombies can't get up and th' raiders vwould hawve to go through th' store first," he said while sitting up. "Vwouldn't that vwork? Vwe could grow food from seeds, drag some o' th' plastic they wrap 'round th' pallets and make covers for th' vwinter."

Oh hey Eri is back. He waved, then saw the food and made grabby hands. "Marshmallowvs!" He hadn't had sweet stuff since four months ago, since those jackass raiders stole his cans and took off.

"Cronus, what about the emergency ladders outside leading to the roof? And vents? I'm pretty sure that some people could totally throw a grapple to get to the roof or maybe use some sorta zip line. Have to have someone up there protecting the garden and-"

"Wwoww, she's got the right idea there... I mean, unless wwe break the ladder or somethin'." Eridan hummed, tossing the small bag of marshmallows over to them both with a small shrug. It was really all he could spare without Sollux noticing much. After that, Latula was reaching for the peaches and green beans.

Damn, did she love canned peaches and couldn't dare go too long without the green beans. Only thing she couldn't have were any type of berries. There probably weren't any canned berries, though. She let out a sigh and gave Eridan a look.

Seriously? She only had one working hand and couldn't open the can without two hands to use the damn can opener or sharp knife that...was oddly clean.

"Vwe break th' ladder inta pieces 'nd haul it up, then chuck it ovwer the side to crush zombies," he suggested. "Boom." He grinned and snagged up the marshmallows, opening the bag and prying a chunk from the squished mass. He offered it to Latula first, just to be polite.

One foot dragged a can of chili over to himself, and he hummed as he dug into his bag, finding his trusty can opener. Luckily it had been hidden in his clothes a while back. He then opened Tula's cans for her, then his chili. It smelled pretty okay, considering it could have expired or something. He started to eat it by tipping the can back like he was chugging a can of soda. Delicious.

Once the can was empty, he set it down and ate a different handful of marshmallow fluff, solid version. Heh, this reminded of when he and his friends had marshmallow guns and played 'army' in the woods. Good times. Cronus was usually in charge, though occasionally he'd promote a friend to be his lieutenant.

"What about if we run outta pieces? Oh, hey! I took a metal course! I could probably end up build up some roof from parts of the ladder or some sorta barrier from any raiders... okay, once I'm able to do things." Latula said with a slight frown, taking the marshmallow to pop it into her mouth. Stale marshmallows never tasted so good... until Eridan started laughing at her idea of building a roof.

"Really? I don't think that you could build a roof from a fuckin' ladder. And evven if ya could do it... it'd be too fuckin' small of a roof." Eridan snickered, eating some gummy bears. Good thing Sollux didn't like anything gummy-related. And seriously, he doubted she could make anything being so small.

Latula could only roll her eyes and smiled when Cronus handed her the open cans, deciding to ignore Eridan as she took the peach can, snatching her assigned fork from Eridan's hands to stab at a piece of peach. Yeah, there we go. "Have you ever built a skateboard? Ten of them? A hundred? Ever build a helmet or more than just one of them?" She asked after finishing off her cans of food, staring right at Eridan as he stuttered, unable to find an answer to that.

Reminded her of the old days where guys would see her walking with her skateboard under her arm and would laugh at her, asking where her boyfriend was. Man, she definitely showed them that she didn't need a man. And that was also the day that she broke her first board.

Cronus was off in Lala-Land as Latula spoke, munching on marshmallow and occasionally offering some because he damn well didn't want to eat the entire bag himself and have them think he was a pig. He just had a really bad sweet tooth. Eridan's laughter snapped him out of Memory Lane not longer after though, and he looked up. Hah! Served Eridan right for being a prick and not believing in her abilities. Some just don't shine through when you're hacking up zombies and stealing food from anywhere you can find it. One such talent Cronus had was playing guitar really, really well. Sadly, his lovely, special Clarisse was stuck in his dorm room, where she lay abandoned on his bed. He'd rescue her sometime, promise.

He chuckled as Eridan struggled for words and offered Latula a high five. Sick burn, totally deserved that.

Latula laughed a little and accepted the high five as Eridan pouted. "No fair, Cro! Takin' your girlfriend's side on the subject of protectin' any potential garden that could happen in the future on the fuckin' roof! I mean, howw the fuck're wwe gonna manage if wwe're evven-" Eridan was interrupted when he heard coughing, taking out his rifle almost immediately and aimed it at the door.

Only to see Sollux hacking out his lungs and leaning against the doorway, head down as he panted. "W-wwhat th' fuck, Sol?!" Eridan blurted out, starting to go over to him and stopped to make a face when he saw Sollux puke. Ew, that's disgusting. "Wwhat happened?!" He frowned, Latula frowning as well as she tried to get a general better look, Sollux waving Eridan off.

"I... f-found Tuna..." Sollux whimpered, arm around his stomach as he panted, blood dripping from his neck. "N-not my blood." He slurred before coughing again.

"What's so bad about finding some tuna? Was it rotten or something?" Latula frowned, not really understanding. And not being given an answer from a sick Sollux.

Wow, girl had some power on her. Cronus's hand smarted after the high five and he shook it out, then forgot the pain as he heard coughing. He snatched up his kukri, heaving himself up, and turned to see it was a false alarm. Thank goodness it wasn't a bad guy. Though Sollux seemed in bad condition, and the blood on his neck made Cronus-

And Sollux threw up. The sight and sound made Cronus nauseous and he looked away. He used to be able to boast an iron stomach, but lack of proper fiber and nutrients fucked with his system. Canned food was not a good choice for those specific things, but it was pretty much all the survivors would have until they got their shit together and made gardens and farms. Maybe once the zombie population was decimated or at least lowered to a manageable level, they could go to rural areas and set up shop. That would hopefully be in the future, though.

Right now, Cronus's eyes were wide and his grip was white-knuckled. Oh fucking hell. "Tuna's short fer Mituna, he's Sol's older bro," he explained in a quiet voice. "And I'm guessin' 'e's turned 'r dead."

Cronus never did make up for bullying and picking on him in the past. Looks like he never would.

Latula's always been known for her hard high fives, same with her tough hugs, but no one would really guess it. Then again, she used to play some baseball and maybe some basketball. Damn, she missed sports.

When she was told that Sollux had an older brother, she could only make the 'O' face with her mouth, pursing her lips. "Damn..." Was all she could really think of saying for the moment.

"No, Tuna's... alive... just... oh my god, all that fucking blood... I went through four eaters to get to him, but... f-fuck... I can't bring him up here. Too fucking weak. Eridan, gonna need your help. He's hurt... bad." Sollux panted, hugging himself as he shook, his only good eye shut and Eridan nodded before just hugging him as well.

"Alright Sol. I'll... try n get him. Wwhere is he?" Eridan asked, rubbing Sollux's back as he continued to shake. "Wwell, that ain't too far from here. You said they're all dead too, right?" he muttered and Sollux nodded, seeming to calm down. "Good. I'll try an' bring him up, you go sit dowwn." he said, sending Sollux off to what seemed to be his spot of the room... only to bury himself in blankets.

Latula could only smile a little at how the two worked together and waved to Eridan when he left with his rifle in hands. She's seen PTSD, been there too, and knew what Sollux must be going through now.

If she could, she'd be going over to give the guy a hug. Knew better than that, of course.

Oh shit, Mituna's hurt? He tried to push himself up but his lower back screamed in pain and he laid back down, letting out a whine. Ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow- pain, that was not a well-motivated movement.

Cronus waved to Eridan as he left, definitely wanting to help but he hurt too badly to get up. He looked to the pile of Sollux and just... didn't know how to comfort him. The guy just didn't know what to say. So he sent soothing vibes Sollux's way.

Hopefully Latula knew more on this crap.

Latula frowned down at Cronus when he whined, placing her good hand on his shoulder. Well, she didn't really know what to do. "Just give him some time to calm down, Cro..." she said with a sigh, wincing a little when she moved her leg. Damn, why'd she do that?

Soon enough Eridan was slowly coming back inside while nearly dragging out a bloody Mituna, blood now over the front of Eridan's clothes. Yeah, it was nearly a miracle the guy was alive. "Sol? I got h-"

"Leave me alone! G-Get th' FUCK OFF ME?!/1" Mituna screamed out, body shaking wildly and Eridan managed to get him on a pile of blankets near Cronus and Latula. The damage really was terrible. It looked like he had been taken on by a bunch of guys with baseball bats with maybe thorns on the ends of it. Which was mostly true along with zombie scars over his face. Not infected of course, but they hurt like a son of a bitch.

"Sol! Wwe need yer help ovver here!" Eridan yelled again, rubbing off a bloody nose that Mituna gave him in the struggles of getting him there. "Fuckin' hell... wwatch him for a bit, Cro?" he frowned before going to the pile of blankets to talk to the younger Captor while Mituna tried to get up, only screaming out slurred curses.

Cronus nodded a bit once he felt Latula's hand on his shoulder, taking a deep breath. Sollux can calm down, Eridan can come back with Mituna, and everything will be okay, right? He and Sollux could fix up Mituna together no problem, once he has some help getting into a comfortable position-

He hadn't even heard Eridan call out to Sollux, too caught up in his thoughts, but the screaming had him shooting up immediately, and regretting it right after. FuuuUUUUUCK! He'd need to have the scratches sewn or stapled shut with how much he moved around- FOCUS.

Cronus quickly crawled over to Mituna once Eridan set him down, not sure where to touch or if he could even do that without causing pain. "Tuna, Tuna bro can you hear me? I need you to calm dowvn, I can help you if you can take deep breaths and stop movwing so much." He started. "Fuck, there's so much blood," he muttered to himself. He put a hand over each relatively uninjured spot on Mituna's shoulders and held him down, moving quickly to pin Tuna's forearms with his knees. He would be too high up on Mituna's chest for a cock shot if the other boy tried to knee him.

"Fuck-! He's bleeding out, Sol, get the med kit and help me! Eri, vwe'll need you to hold him dowvn- Tula, you too!" Cronus needed all the help he could get.

"I'M NHOT YOUR FUCKING BRO, DICK FACE!" Mituna blurted out and spat at Cronus' face as he continued to struggle, though froze up when he felt something. Latula's hand had started going through his hair. Wow, did she really have that much an impact on dudes?

Sollux eventually came running over with the med kit, cheeks stained with tears as Eridan followed swiftly after. "Howw'd ya calm him dowwn like that?" Eridan frowned and held back a laugh at seeing what Latula was doing. Ah, so THAT'S the reason.

"Thhut the fuck up and move tho I can thee the fucking damage." Sollux grumbled and shooed Cronus off him. "Get off him. Hith thtomach'th altho bloody and I don't know if it'th a wound or jutht thomeone elthe'th blood. And you..." he said, pointing to Latula, "keep doing what you're doing." He mumbled.

"Cro, your back okay?" Latula asked him quietly so they couldn't hear her. Not that they would when they were so busy trying to take care of Mituna's injuries. Be a miracle if he survives.

Cronus flinched back as Mituna spat at him, then had to wipe his cheek off on the shoulder of his shirt. Ew... What really hurt was the 'I'm not your bro' part, however. Did Mituna really not remember ANYTHING they did before? It wasn't much, granted, but they were still kinda close when this shit went down. Maybe if Cronus hadn't been sent off to boarding school so much, Mituna would be okay, or at least better.

Once Mituna seemed to calm down for some reason, he climbed off from his awkward position. He hadn't sat on his stomach, give him some credit! He let Sollux shoo him off and sat down by Latula, wincing again. Ow. He used his lower back more than he really thought he did.

Cronus glanced over to Latula after she asks her question and nods softly. Just a couple torn scabs, no big deal. He'd heal up soon enough, right? After all, he used antiseptic and ointment in case of regular infection. "Poor Tuna..."

Latula nodded with a sigh, watching Sollux shoo her hand away when he deemed Mituna was calm enough to work with. "Okay Tuna, jutht thtay thtill..." Sollux huffed and shuffled so his back was to them.

If anyone was in Mituna's head, they'd find a pretty scrambled mind right now. Too many thoughts, so little memories. Even any filter he had for swearing and saying absolutely anything without thinking was gone. He figured he could do whatever the fuck he wanted without consequences! And damn, that girl had a nice set on her (if you know what he means by that). And now he wondered what her ass looked like. Either way...the chick's HOT AS FUCK! Then he lost it when Sollux had to remove his hoodie to check out the damage. Yep, probably at least one broken rib, multiple bruises and cuts, and it looked like there were bite marks. Not zombie ones, it seemed.

"Yeah, poor guy... but lemme see your back a mo', Cronus." Latula said and ran a hand through Cronus' hair now.

Cronus sighed softly and turned his back to Latula, pulling his shirt up. The movement tugged at the barely-closed scabs and he hissed, gritting his teeth before unwrapping the bandages. He was starting to despise the scent of blood even more than he did before.

His lower back was streaked with blood under the gauze, and a couple drops beaded as the gauze pulled away a scab or two. Owww! The skin around the wounds looked grey-ish, the veins darker and more black-looking. Cronus took deep breaths, the drops falling down his back almost looking purple-black.

Latula frowned slightly and scooted over to him a little, gently placing her good hand on his upper back so it wouldn't touch the wounds. She's seen that before, and it never ended all that good...

"Holy fuck, Cro! Wwhat the hell happened ta your back!" Eridan squeaked, having been nearby when Latula had talked to Cronus. Fuck, she was hoping to keep it quiet. "All fuckin'... grey skin and dark purple blood!"

And that caught Sollux's attention briefly as he seemed to have tended to most of Mituna's wounds, his light blue eye narrowing at him suspiciously. "Let'th take a look at that." He muttered and pat Mituna on the head as an attempt to calm him down so he wouldn't move around anywhere.

Cronus leaned into Latula's hand, finding it a nice, warm contrast to his own right now. He feels kinda like he's just taken a cold shower, a little clammy and cold. That's never a good sign in the zombie apocalypse. He could just be infected or Infected, and some people would shoot you if you got either.

He shifted to face Eridan, giving him a weak smile. "Ah, had a run-in vwith sharp nails." Keep it vague, he didn't know how Sollux would react or what might happen. He really did not want to die, he wasn't ready. He's never had an actual date! (The one with Juan didn't count, that was a fucking catfish that he didn't deserve.)

"I'm fine, don't vworry about it. Just need t' stay dowvn for a couple days and let the scabs solidify. Hurts vwhen they tear," he mumbled. He went to put the gauze back on, not wanting to waste any precious resources like medical supplies.

Latula hummed a bit as she felt his cold skin, rubbing his upper back a moment with her hand. Man, she hoped to god that he wasn't infected. Couldn't stand seeing a guy she just met turn into one of those things. And no way in HELL was she going to just leave him either.

Eridan frowned slightly and Sollux wiped his hands off onto his bloody shirt and then watched Sollux cross his arms. "Howw sharp wwere they? Let Sol havve a look." He said and looked over at the Captor, Mituna looking over with tired eyes.

"Tuna, keep your head on the fucking ground. Cronuth, it'th not thafe to put uthed gauze on an injury. Here. Let me take a look and fix it up for you." Sollux muttered and raised an eyebrow.

Cronus sighed softly as she rubbed his skin, finding it soothing. Things were already stressful enough, and he didn't need an infection scare to set anybody's anxiety off. Besides, he just felt tired because they had fought a shit ton of zombies and his muscles were exhausted. Fatigue is expected when being badass, right?

"Okay, okay," he conceded as he dropped the bandages. They were really gross anyways, eugh. Those need to be burnt, for sure.

"Do your magic, Doctor Captor," he mumbled sarcastically. He knew he was fine, the infection was carried through blood and saliva. He only got scratched with broken fake nails from a soccer mom zombie. He'd be fine! "And I could use some vwater."

Latula smiled a little and continued to rub at his upper back, only taking it off when he moved for Sollux, but even then she left her hand on his shoulder. She really hoped that he wasn't infected. If he was, it would probably be because of her and how defenseless she was. Yeah, she owed a lot to him for that.

"Eridan, take the thhit and fucking throw them out of the window. And get a bottle of water too." Sollux said and Eridan made a face, starting to say something before giving in and taking the bandages.

"Don't fucking joke about that becauthe I have magic up my thleeve that you wouldn't fucking believe." Sollux said with a huff, frowning slightly as he saw the scabs and the blood from it. "Thith definitely ithn't healthy... and not jutht a wound. Lookth like you could... be infected. I've theen it before and thith ith thtill really fucking ugly."

Cronus held his hand on top of Latula's for emotional support as Sollux checked him out. He really hoped he wasn't infected or Infected. He had so much left to do. It was his 18th birthday in less than a week, dammit!

"It's from an hour or so ago, Sol. Hasn't had time t' set up proper scabs, 'nd the antiseptic I used vwas shitty off-brand crap," he replied. He felt a tickle in the back of his throat act up and coughed a little. Hopefully Eridan came back with that water soon. "Fuck, 'm thirsty..." He looked to Latula, then rubbed an eye. He was really just tired and thirsty and needed a nap after this. He knew he'd be fine- he always was.

Latula smiled a bit and ran her thumb over his knuckles a little as she watched and listened to what Sollux was doing, seeing Mituna look over as well. Okay, just mostly that mop of hair poking out to see them.

"Tuna, lay down. And we're working on getting you water after I patch you up a bit better... if you thtart to thhow thignth of turning within two hourth... we'll lock you up in a thpare room on a chain. Becauthe I know that Eridan wouldn't want me to kill you and I wouldn't have the gutth to kill you anywayth." Sollux muttered and soon saw Eridan come over with half a bottle of water. Yeah, they had their good system of rationing things.

"Here, Cro." Eridan said and sat in front of him with the bottle. At least he didn't hear what Sollux said not too long ago. It might've killed him to hear it.

"Hey, Sthol?" Mituna lisped out, his lisp much heavier than his brother's. "Can I be moved besthide that chick too?" he grinned, Sollux just raising an eyebrow at the request.

"Well... thhe did calm you down, tho... Eridan, help me move him." Sollux replied with a heavy groan, he and Eridan moving Mituna via blanket-dragging to put him on the other side of Latula. "Happy?" he sighed and Mituna just nodded with a grin.

Cronus closed his eyes and leaned toward Latula's hand a bit. What were the signs of turning again? He was pretty sure that one was injury site beginning to rot, with it spreading to the rest of the skin. Another was throwing up, often accompanied with coughing up blood. He sincerely hoped he wouldn't show any signs, because being locked up in another room sounds fuckin' awful.

He turned once he head Eridan coming, then smiled as his little brother sat down in front of him. He took the water gratefully, uncapping it just in time for a tickle in his throat to start making him cough. Infection was basically the worst flu ever. He covered his mouth with his elbow like any polite person would do, then once it was over he drank some water. "Felt that one comin', ugh."

Cronus watched the two move Mituna and he just doesn't know how to feel about him. They were kinda friends before, since their brothers hung out and usually they were expected to get along, they did whenever Sollux and Mituna came over to the house. Cronus didn't believe that Mituna couldn't remember him, and maybe he was just being jealous but he wasn't sure about leaving Mituna near Latula.

Once Eridan was near Cronus again, he pulled his little brother into a nice hug. They both needed one, after all the shit they've been through. He buried his face in Eri's shoulder, sighing softly. "...I'm not lettin' you die, Eri," he mumbles against Eridan's skin, "not evwer." He'd keep that promise.

"Take it slow, Cronus." Latula told him once he coughed and ran a thumb over his cheek when it was close enough to have her do so. She REALLY didn't want him to turn, knowing it was definitely her fault if he did. And she couldn't let it happen. And she wasn't sure about Mituna either. He seemed okay enough, but maybe not too right in the head with the way he talked about her so far. Could be because of the state he was in or something, though.

Sollux continued to keep a watchful eye on Cronus and shook his head slowly when he saw him cough. Yeah, not a good sign so far. "Let'th thee your elbow. Make thure you haven't coughed out any blood yet. Becauthe... I kind of hope you won't turn into one of them." he huffed and rubbed at his eye with a yawn.

"I wwon't let you turn into onna them either, Cro... and Sol, you'vve gone twwenty-four hours wwithout sleep. Get some fuckin' sleep and I'll wwake you up if I see any signs of him turnin'... wwhich hopefully wwon't evver happen." Eridan sighed, hugging Cronus in return with a bit of a sniff. "Sol, I mean it!" he said to Sollux and watched him roll his eye before going to his nest of blankets, muttering something under his breath as he did so.

Cronus didn't want to turn either. He knew that Eridan and/or Latula would blame themselves, and Sollux would chain him up like a sedated but rabid dog until they found someone unattached enough to end his miserable existence as one of the undead. Mituna probably wouldn't care. He didn't seem to remember Cronus, which really depressed the blond. They had been kinda bros.

Once Sollux was done talking, Cronus pulled away from Eridan and showed Sollux his sleeve. It was hard to tell, since the damn thing was black leather, but it was clean- except for one itty bitty drop, leftover from when he bit his tongue earlier. A zombie tackling you tends to cut off your words and when your tongue is in the way... Ouch.

Oh wait Sollux was heading to sleep. He just hugged Eridan again, the drop transferring to the back of his little brother's shirt. "I could use some sleep too, I'm exhausted. Vwe're all locked up and safe, right Eri? Don't need to set up a vwatch?"

Eridan nodded in response to Cronus' question. "Yeah. Wwe're safe in here. Got a lock on all doors and Sol set up alarms powwered by solar shit... I don't fuckin knoww howw electric things wwork." He said, hugging Cronus tight as he could without hurting him.

"Damn, your friend thinks of everything, huh?" Latula snorted with a loud yawn, starting to settle into her blanket pile and shut her eyes lightly with a sigh. "Catch some Z's, Cro." She muttered and moved her hand to rest it beside her by Cronus.

"Heh, sthe'sth a babe." Mituna snickered from his spot on the other side of her, a bandage wrapped around his head. Most likely if he didn't hit his head so hard earlier, he'd remember who the fuck the Amporas were. Or, at least, who Cronus was.

Cronus nodded softly. "He managed to reroute the lights from the generator? Damn, must'vwe taken ages... Hey, Eri, so they're... **_Sol_** -ar panels?" What the shit Cronus. That is so bad. Sooo fucking bad. Holy hell.

He heard Latula snort and looked over, making sure she was okay. He was getting to be protective of her, since she was injured and such a nice gal.. He let go of his little brother to gently take her hand, to simply squeeze it lightly. He's there for you, Latula.

He glanced over once he heard Mituna speak, and mentally had to agree. Latula was beautiful, in her own badass, cute way. For now though, he needed sleep. "I'mma sleep too, Eri. Sleep vwell, guys," he said softly as he laid down by Latula.

Eridan just rolled his eyes, a groan able to be heard from where Sollux was in his own blanket pile. "That wwas fuckin' horrible, Cro. Y'should be ashamed a yourself." He chuckled and gave Cronus a playful punch. Nothing hard of course, just a light smack mostly.

Latula smiled lightly and gave his hand a squeeze in turn when she felt his hand in hers with a light hum. She's there for you too, Cronus. Well, other than falling asleep within a minute.

"Night, Cro." Eridan said with a smile before looking around. Fuck, he wanted to be around Sollux, but at the same time he was seeing his brother the first time in a long time.

Cronus laughed quietly as he laid down, able to hear Sollux's low groan. Dad jokes are one of his specialties, among others. Dark humor isn't everyone's cup of liquefied dead baby though, so he rarely used that.

"Night Eri, night evweryone." It's so nice to be able to say that after months of solitary. He feels safer, more.. hinged around everyone. He never wanted to be alone again. His free hand gently scratched at his side as he laid next to Latula, eyes closing. "Go sleep vwherewver, Eri. Sorry if I took yer pillowv," he mumbled.

"Alright. Night Cro!" Eridan said and gave Cronus one more hug before going to his own pillow/blanket pile in the middle of the room. Well, somewhere between Sollux and Cronus, anyways.

"G'night, Cro..." Latula slurred, Mituna already starting to snore in his sleep. Yep, ended up he was a loud snorer. But hey, Latula's sleeping, Sollux is sleeping, Eridan's sleeping, and Mituna's sleeping. Everyone's happy, right? Though she shifted slightly so her good hand was resting on Cronus' shoulder as she slept.

Cronus sleepily hugged Eridan back before the little bro laid down, then looked to Latula, taking in the sight of her. She was quite beautiful, really, even without his brain being a tad addled by exhaustion. The hand on his shoulder made him smile as he drifted off, his own on top of it for a while. Somewhere in the night, however, he shifted and held it in his dreams, shudders racking his body and small whimpers escaping him. Nightmares were a bitch to deal with..

Cronus's mainly featured himself, for good reason. Typically it was the standard nightmare-turned reality type of dream, where he got torn from limb to limb and/or eaten alive. This one was different though. He felt.. outside himself. Like a ghost hovering next to his body. What he saw though, that was what almost made him wake up and scream at.

His body was a zombie. He was dead, unable to control it, and it proceeded to stain the pillows and blankets of the room crimson.

First, Latula was killed, throat clawed at until It could tear her head off and bash it on a cleared spot of floor. That woke up Mituna, who had his chest clawed and ripped open, rib torn out until he passed out in pain, then his heart joined the head. The zombie was making a pile of food. Eridan... oh, poor Eridan. He was awake to see Mituna's heart being ripped out, and his scream would echo in Cronus's ears when he finally woke up. The zombie grabbed Eridan's bottom jaw and pulled, ignoring the hands clawing at its chest, and didn't stop until his jaw dislocated, then was pulled away in the most gruesome fashion Cronus had ever seen. His ghost dry-heaved as he watched, and he couldn't take his eyes away. He was forced to watch that, that THING using his body to rip Eridan apart. Eridan was somehow still alive when it tore his throat out with its teeth. Sollux was awake, the last one left, and had a knife on him. This was the only reason Cronus didn't see the ending- his corpse got stabbed in the throat and he woke up screaming, tears in his eyes and Latula's hand clasped to his chest.

Latula hissed in slight pain at feeling his hand on his chest, having moved her body a bit as well, moving her sore leg. The screaming also woke up Eridan, holding his gun and he scanned the room for anything bad. Mituna seemed to growl as he woke up.

"Sthhsthut the fhukc up!" Mituna snapped, followed by some heavy coughing as he coughed out a bit of leftover blood from earlier that night. Of course Sollux was woken up with a groan. Yeah, he hasn't gotten any sleep for a good twenty four hours, maybe longer than that.

"Hey, Cro, it's alright, shh..." Latula muttered and gave his hand a soft squeeze before rubbing his chest in circles with her thumb. "What's wrong? We're all okay, I promise you that." She said and shifted so her hand wasn't in his grip and was instead going through his hair. "You're okay." She hushed and wiped off the tears from his cheeks, shifting a little closer to him to try and calm him down.

"Wwhat happened, Cro? Y'wwere screamin' bloody murder!" Eridan frowned and put his gun away, Mituna silently glaring at Cronus. Why'd HE get all the attention?!

Cronus wheezed and slowly let go of Latula's hand, wanting to fold in on himself and just disappear. Fuck. FUCK. He didn't even hear Mituna through all the thoughts crowding his head, just sobbed and tried to stop panicking. Dammit, this was why he hated sleeping most of the time. If it wouldn't put him in a state of low energy and high alert, Cronus would probably stay up for days, fueled on energy drinks he snags from corner stores. Eridan could attest to this, since sometimes when Cronus was actually home and working on a song, he'd stay up for days on end until he passed the fuck out. Chronic nightmares were a bitch.

Thank the fucking Lord (not really, Cronus's atheist) for Latula. Her kind and reassuring words did ease his conscious some, but he still trembled and wheezed. "I-'m sorry 'm sorry-" He gulped down air, then her hand was running through his hair. Remember how that's pretty much the kill switch? He grew quieter after that, taking shaky breaths and gripping the hem of his shirt. "...e-evweryone's okay, r-right?" He asked that to the other four, wiping his eyes with the back of his wrist. "S-sound off." He needed to know that everyone was here and okay. He wasn't in a good state of mind right then, and probably would try to be alone after this. He hated being so fucking weak, and having to deal with this shit.

Latula nodded and simply continued to run her fingers through his hair and down to one of his cheeks, running her thumb along his cheek. "It's okay, Cro. Don't have to apologize, I promise." She replied, her hand soon going back to combing back his hair so it was away from his eyes.

With a small sigh from Sollux's blanket pile, he just gave a wave. "Thollux ith alive, at leatht. Ugh, maybe I thhould check the thecurity thythtem to make thure it'th up and running. By that I mean take a walk and get you thome water or thomething. I'll be miththed the leatht out of thith group, anyway." He muttered with a stretch before standing up, deciding to leave the room and take Eridan's gun with him. Yeah, he's experienced very frequent chronic nightmares, some of them he believed to be visions now since one of them had him be blinded (thank fuck it's only the one eye) and the other about Mituna, which has clearly happened. And don't remind him of all the friends he had to kill over the past few months that he knew he had to. And didn't want to ever do that again.

"And Eridan's alright too, Cro." Eridan nodded and went over to give him a hug from behind, patting his shoulder.

"Same here. Latula's here." Latula said with a small chuckle, her hand going down to rub the back of his neck and back to the top of his head to now give his hair/head a little massage. "Everyone's good." She confirmed after Mituna managed to stumble out his name with some difficulty.

Cronus sucked in deep breaths as Latula played with his hair, worry and panic still crowding his mind. He knew he'd never do such a thing, not while he was HIM, but what if the scratches were Infected and he was actually turning? He gripped his blanket until he had white knuckles, looking up at everyone.

Sollux is okay, and heading out to check on things and grab some water. "Th-thanks," he stammered out. He'd have to get used to people being nice to him again. Latula was making it an easier transition, though. Eridan's okay, and was now hugging him from behind and patting him. He turned and hugged him back, jaws shut as he nuzzled his little brother's shoulder. He heard Latula and Mituna sound off, and finally began to ease up some. They're okay, he didn't do anything, it was just a bad dream. Everyone was okay.

He kept hugging Eridan until either the little brother wanted to be let go, or Sollux came back with the water. Whichever came first. He took slow, deep breaths and calmed down, feeling his heart stop thudding so much in his chest. Actually, it was being a bit slow. That can't be good...

"Just a bad dream. Or, wwell... a terribly real nightmare, at least." Eridan reassured him and nuzzled into his shoulder in return, not at all minding the hugs right now. As long as it calmed down his older brother, that was just about all that really mattered.

Latula just nodded at what Eridan said and moved over to rub his upper back with her good hand. "Yeah. I dunno what happened in your nightmare, but it wasn't real... well... I think it didn't happen? Long story short, we're all here. You're okay." She said, then going back to stroking his hair lightly.

Meanwhile, Mituna only grumbled and twitched a little. Shit sucked when you didn't have medication for epilepsy. Least it wasn't on the major seizure scale. Though he wished he was left alone and died, in all honesty. Not that it mattered since he more than likely was suffering from brain damage... maybe that was why his seizures weren't so bad lately. Either that or maybe he was too focused on staying alive to focus on his actual body? Whatever.

Half an hour passed by when Sollux came back with a bottle of water and rubbed at his only eye. "Here. Let'th jutht check your thcarth a moment. Want to make sure you aren't getting Infected..."

"Sol, don't say that." Eridan grumbled and continued to almost cling onto Cronus as if to protect him from turning. If that was what was happening.

Cronus clung to Eridan like he was one of his last lifelines, relaxing at the touch of Latula's hand. They were some of the few kind people Cronus had met that meant some thing to him. They meant the absolute world to him, and reminded him of the good things that happened before this shit storm started up and fucked everyone over. It made him think of playing guitar in the living room and the rare occasions Eridan sang along, roaring down the streets with Clarisse (his motorcycle) and Thomas, one of his friends, whenever he came home from boarding school. It stung a bit, truthfully.

"Y-yeah... you're o-okay.." Some days, Cronus didn't give a shit about himself, and this was one of those days. He took deep breaths and focused on Eridan's breath against his neck. They're okay, they're alive, and it's just a stupid nightmare. He needed to calm down.

Once Sollux came back, Eridan was talking to him and Cronus was half-asleep again. Took some doing, but he gently untangled himself from Eridan and turned, pulling his shirt up over his head and off. The bandages were soaked through, and Cronus was staring at the dark patch on the back of his white shirt. That was not good at all. He balled it up and threw it so it didn't touch any pillows or blankets. Might be contaminated. He scratched his side, at the edge of the bandages where oddly colored skin was peeking up. Shit doesn't look good, son.

When Sollux saw Cronus scratching close to the bandages and swat it away. "Don't fucking thcratch it. It'th jutht going to open and make thingth worthe for you. Might even thpeed up the procethth. We can't afford you turning to the point where we have to lock you up until..." He sighed and rubbed the back of his neck, looking away. Yeah, he couldn't afford to waste the other room they had where it was already a bloody mess. He didn't want to kill any other friends. That's right, he considered Cronus as a friend.

Not that he'd ever admit it. "Okay, c'mere." He said, shooing away Eridan so he'd get a better look. Even poking at it once just to see the reaction. "That hurt, tickle, or jutht you felt nothing at all whatthoever?" Sollux asked. There were different reactions to getting infected. He remembered getting bitten on the shoulder by one of those things and it was itchy, but he never scratched at it. After the first day of it being itchy, well... the itching disappeared and the bite mark seemed to fade away.

"Cronus... that doesn't look so good, babe." Latula frowned as she propped herself up on an elbow to also take a look, but didn't want to tell Cronus that Sollux was poking at it in case he was trying to make a point.

Cronus let his hand be swatted away, then pulled his legs up a bit to squeeze his hands between them. It just itched so much, it was hard not to scratch. He didn't know much about turning, because he was either on his own or Mark.. but he never was in the situation of watching someone turn into one of those THINGS. He didn't know the symptoms, or what really transferred it. He just figured it was saliva to blood, or blood to blood.

He glanced to Latula and sighed, then started talking right before Sollux poked him. "Yeah, I kn- OW!" That hurt! He put his hand over the spot, trying to blink back tears. "That really hurt, Sol!" The top hem of Cronus's pants were black with dried blood that seeped onto the floor and dried to his pants and lower back. They weren't scabbing up well...

"Jesus, vwhat the bloody fucking hell are you doing back there? Don't stab me or something, Jesus fuck," he cursed. Scientific studies show that cussing helps relieve pain, and that's what he's doing. "I thought you vwere tryin' to help me heal."

Sollux rolled his eye and shook his head. "I am. Thing ith... I know there'th no way to heal it. If it wath thtill itchy when I poked it, then there'd thtill be a way to heal it. But, well, unfortunately... it'th not going to heal. Going to get worthe, I've theen it before. And if it'th thtill bleeding rather than thcabbing, well..." He sighed and wiped his hand off on his shirt, rolling his shoulders.

"Sol, y'can't mean..." Eridan stuttered, looking at Sollux as he just looked down with a slow nod.

"Wait, what's going on?" Latula frowned and ran a hand through Cronus' hair a little bit, getting a look from Sollux as Mituna only grinned. Oh yeah, he was going to score with this chick once HE was out of the picture!

Sollux moved in front of Cronus, staring at him in the eyes with his single eye. "Yeah, I need to lock you up. But I'll be checking up on you. If you're not hungry for human flethth and thcabth have began to form, then you can be let out." He said and stood up, holding out a hand.

Sollux's diagnosis made Cronus's heart drop into his stomach and dissolve in the acid. No. NO! This couldn't be happening! Even as Cronus tried to deny it, however, he knew it was true. He was turning.. and unless he got locked up, Eridan and Latula and everyone would be in grave danger. He swallowed, looking down. Fuck. He knew his decision, but... Latula wouldn't be able to see him. He'd be cut off from decent human contact until he either overcame it (highly unlikely) or died and turned into a shambling, flesh-hungry monster.

He felt Latula's hand, and enjoyed it while he still could. For all he knew, he'd never receive this treatment ever again. Nobody would be able to comfort or touch him.. He'd be alone.

Cronus looked up once he heard Sollux talk about locking him up, and met his eye with his own slightly teary. Why did it have to come to this? He took the younger boy's and stood, gritting his teeth in pain as what attempted scabs cracked open. "Alright." This almost felt like a deal with the devil, but Cronus already made his decision. For the good of his friends, he'd let himself be locked away, possibly even for good. They mattered more, especially Eridan and Latula.

Latula's eyes widened and Eridan shook his head, wanting to grab onto his leg but knew it would be rather pointless and that he wouldn't be able to change Sollux's mind about it. After all, it probably was for the best. "Wait!" Latula said as Sollux stood Cronus up, making the younger roll his eye with a groan as she stood up, wobbling a little. "I hope you won't turn." She said, giving him a hug. "And... thanks again for saving me." She said with a sigh, still feeling this was her fault that he was in this shit. With a deep breath, she gave him a soft kiss on the lips, letting it last a few seconds before Sollux cleared his throat.

"Enough thaying your goodbye, we don't know how thlow or fatht it could take you over completely." Sollux muttered and let Eridan give Cronus a tight hug with teary eyes and a sniffle, telling him how much he'd miss him and wish him luck before letting him go.

And of course, Mituna only snickered and eyed the backside of Latula because... damn that ass on her was just... yeah, she had no one and now he'd have to make her his.

"C'mon, Cro." Sollux sighed and pat Cronus on the back, genuinely apologetic about having to lock him up. "Okay, tho... there'th blood on the chainth from... our other friendth... but I promithe I jutht wanted you to know that beforehand." He said as they entered a room that must've been a closet at some point that Sollux had expanded into a larger room that he could lock up zombies in, sort of use them as bait to kill off any raiders that would come in. Only he could really open it without getting noticed that much. "I really am thorry about having to do thith."

Cronus hugged back once he feels arms around him, and slowly hugs Latula back. He hoped he wasn't contagious by touch. It ripped at his heartstrings, being forced to separate himself like this. He just wanted to hug Latula until he healed, his back scabbing over under her touch until she set him right with every tracing of her fingertips. "Y-yeah..." He swallowed thickly, then squeezed her once. "I'm glad I did, too." The kiss... he returned it after a second or two, then caught himself. He might have just Infected her. He pulled back and moved his hand to wipe off her lips carefully, not wanting to take anybody else down with him... especially not her. Anybody but her and the others in the room, but mostly Latula.

Eridan was next, and Cronus started to cry. He couldn't handle such a sad goodbye. He sobbed and tried to stifle it, clutching Eri tightly and whispering to him. "Take c-care of everyone, Eri. Make sure S-Sol sleeps 'nough, Tula doesn' movwe too much, 'nd Tuna gets th' meds 'e needs. Use m' med book, 's in m' bag.. Yer gonna need a newv medic, vwhile 'm... busy." He kissed the top of Eridan's head, then held him tighter than necessary. Letting go took time.

Once Eridan let go, Sollux pulled him away and Cronus let him lead the way to the room. The news about the blood was unexpected, but Cronus just wiped his eyes and turned stoic. Guess he was going to turn into his Dad at some point... Didn't want it to be so soon, though. "I knowv. It's-" He swallowed thickly again. Keep it together. "It's fine. Let's do i-it before I run back in." Honestly.. he was terrified. This was everything he tried to avoid. He didn't pay attention to the surroundings, he'd have plenty of time to later. He'd have days.

Latula just smiled at him when he wiped off her lips, a little tear going down her cheek as she gave the finger a small kiss. Honestly, she didn't want him to leave, but knew it was probably for the best of everyone's health. But maybe he wouldn't turn! She really could only be hopeful.

Eridan just nodded, letting out another light sniffle. "I'll try t'make Sol sleep... but he hasn't been able t'sleep much for maybe a month or so. It's th' reason all the shit's been put t'gether so quickly..." He whispered back, giving Cronus another squeeze before letting Sollux walk him away, making Latula sit down before hugging her too. Mostly just for something living to hold onto.

"Don't worry about that kithth between you and your girlfriend, it wouldn't get her Infected unlethth you put your tongue down her throat." Sollux told him when they got inside the actual room and shut the door behind them, walking them to the center of the room where there were a set of chains, most likely to chain legs together. "Ugh, I really hate doing thith... come here, gotta chain your feet to the wall." He said and took the chains, chaining one of Cronus' legs and locked it up after making sure it was tight on the leg.

"Thorry if doing thith hurtth, jutht in cathe you do turn... well... thothe thingth are thtrong ath fuck. Known to even tear out eyeth." He muttered before doing the same with the other leg. And now for the hands. "Okay, you'll be able to uthe your handth becauthe I'll need thothe to be fairly available tho you could eat and drink okay enough." He said, gesturing for a hand.

Cronus certainly was relieved to hear that the kiss wouldn't turn Latula, but he still was on edge. He really didn't want to do this, despite it being for the well being of everyone else. He wanted to be with them, to never let them go and to make sure nothing ever hurt them. The first leg cuff clicked in place and he winced slightly, from how tight it made his boot around his ankle. He should've taken those off first. He sat down and unlaced it, working it from under the cuff and tossing it toward the door. The second one soon followed, then his jacket joined them and Cronus was offering his wrists to Sollux.

"It's fine, Sol. Jus' don' need those, righ'?" His speech was a tad more slurry, and seemed to fade out words before he got to the last letter. "I'm guessin' food's comin' regularly? Cool." Hopefully it doesn't turn out to be a waste of resources.

Sollux just nodded slowly and tugged at the leg cuffs to make sure they wouldn't come off his feet and nodded to himself before putting the chains on his wrists. Though he made sure that the jacket was close to Cronus in the event of getting cold at all during any sleep he might get. "Yeah. Food'th gonna come at fairly regular timeth, jutht not a lot of it. Not until we know if you're going one hundred percent zombie or whatever." He said and looked at Cronus with a pat on the shoulder. "And only I'm going to be giving you the food." He added, rubbing the back of his neck a little with a sigh, looking at Cronus with his blue eye. "Anything I can get you for now?"

Cronus was a bit glad to have the jacket back, he was just concerned about how to get it on and off with the cuffs forcing it to stay on. He also didn't want to bleed all over it.. His bandages were soaked through, so he quietly asked for a quick change so he wouldn't feel gross and sticky. He would need someone else to do it, the chains weren't positioned to let him reach around too much without making it unbearably painful. By the time he gets out, he'll have scars from the cuffs's edges digging into his wrists.

He nodded softly as Sollux explained the food issue, then glanced back up at him. "Can I havwe the pillowv from b'fore, 'nd th' vwater bottle y' gavwe me before checkin' ou' m' back?" He was thirsty, now that he thought about it. He opened the water but didn't get to drink it since Sol immediately checked his bandages. This just... He wanted to flip back through time and somehow make sure the virus never happened, so he'd have a wholly mentally/emotionally-intact brother again and a living Dad to be able to hug again. Maybe if he did turn, he could hug Dad again. You never know.

Sollux nodded at the request for new bandages. Yeah, he'd change them. Only he couldn't catch the disease, anyways. And he knew that Cronus wouldn't want Latula or Eridan to do things like these in the event they got infected. Not like he mattered all that much when it came to things like these according to Cronus. Then again, he wouldn't know that.

"Be right back." Sollux said and pat his shoulder before leaving the room, locking the door behind him as yet another precaution. Of course he got back to see Mituna chatting up a storm with Latula and only being met with nods as responses. Eridan looked up at Sollux and he pointed to the water bottle silently, Eridan nodding and handing it to him with a sigh.

He got back to the room not even ten minutes later and shut the door behind him again, going to Cronus, handing over the water. "Here'th the water, I'm gonna thtart working on the new bandageth on your back." He said, then going to see his back, shaking his head.

Sollux did matter a lot, really, but Cronus tended to worry about family and crushes/significant others before his little brother's best friend. It just was how it worked with Cronus. He watched the door click shut and heard the lock, then sighed and looked around the room. Most of the contaminated blood had been cleared out, and there were no bodies, but the floors and walls were scratched up to hell and back. Black had dried on the chain and flaked when he shook it, making him pull a face. This was creepy as hell... He tried not to let it affect him too much. It'd be his place for a while. Hopefully it's not more than a day or two, he didn't want to wait forever.

He chewed on his nails as he waited for Sollux, then the door was opening and Cronus got his water. He opened it and drank as Sollux walked behind him, forcing himself to relax. Maybe one scab had closed up as he sat there? He hoped so; it'd make this a false alarm. 'Hey whoopth, Cronuth ith okay tho let'th head back to the otherth!' He'd love to hear that.

Sollux checked the wound and sighed, shaking his head at the sight. Nope, the scabs had apparently not wanted to really close up. "Geez, thith ith going to hurt, not going to even try and beat around the tho-called 'bush' in timeth like thethe." He muttered, taking out some anti-bacterial bandages he had found way back to the times were like before the world went to shit. "I'm going to put thome thpecial bandageth on, they've got on thome anti-bacterial thhit, tho it'th going to thting a lot. But don't fucking itch at it or the wound ith jutht going to keep opening and it'll let in the infection and you'll be one of thothe thingth." He warned before starting to bandage it up, even taping it down with a tape that wouldn't hurt so much for whenever it would come off.

"I'm theriouth about thith. We don't want you to be infected to the point of no return. We can't afford that nightmare to come true." Sollux told him and pat his shoulder once he finished putting fresh bandages on the wound. Yeah, he remembered having an out-of-body experience the first night he was infected and it was torture. "And there'th an intercom up there, tho if you need me... jutht give a thhout or thomething."

Cronus gritted his teeth as the bandages came off, taking off a couple layers of skin in certain spots where it looked like the skin was getting worse. It certainly was not a pretty sight. Eridan might have thrown up if he saw. Ew. When the bandages were applied, Cronus hissed through his teeth and dug his nails into his thighs, hard enough to start the bruising process. Sollux knew what he was doing, but the warning didn't do much to keep it from actually hurting worse than a broken leg. Once the tape was in place, Cronus was tense and trying not to show how it stung. No tears here, he needed to be strong and get through the infection.

"Howv did you knowv vwhat my nightmare vwas about?" Cronus turned his head the best he could to look at Sollux. "I nevwer said vwhat it vwas about.." Sollux must have good guessing skills, then, orrr maybe he had been infected too and got over it faster. After all, a bite is easier to deal with than your lower back being torn up by infected fake nails.

"Alright, I'll givwe you a a shout. Might need a bucket or something to pee in." He is not making a pee corner, this was not the Stone Age and there had to be one around for the janitorial staff. Oh, shoulder pat. Cronus rested his hand over Sollux's, mostly because he needed human contact.

To Sollux, there wasn't really anything that made him feel sick in this new hellhole. Even before the bite happened. Fuck, why'd he just HAVE to bring up nightmares? Think fast! "Do you really not think anyone that'th been infected wouldn't have the nightmare of killing their loved oneth? I've had to do thith with Karkat too. He told me about the nightmare he had after he got bitten. Unfortunately I made the mithtake of having Kankri thee (see) the key I put on a necklace and he took it in the middle of the night that Karkat actually... but enough of that. You know how I am about emotionth." He shrugged. While most of the story of what happened to both Vantases were true, the part about Karkat telling him about any sort of nightmare was made up. "And there'th a yellow bucket over there ath well ath a grey bucket to take a dump in. I cleaned them, tho don't worry about that too much." He snorted after a bit of silence and just let Cronus' hand stay over his own. Not like there was anywhere to be right now, right?

"I guess you're right..." It'd definitely be a common fear in this day and age. Turning into a monster and killing the ones you loved would be one of the absolute scariest things that could happen, though almost being eaten by a cannibal was high on Cronus's list in particular. Poor Mark...

He rubbed the back of Sollux's hand with his thumb as he heard the story of the Vantases, and Cronus's heart plummeted. Eridan and Karkat had been the absolute best of friends, though Eridan hadn't been the most welcoming when Sollux showed up and Karkat took a liking to him.

Kankri... Originally, Cronus had a huge crush on the guy, but once he learned Kankri was celibate and not interested, they became good friends, and talked often online when Cronus was away at the boarding school. Learning that was a slice to the heart.

"Thanks, Sollux." He looked down as he swallowed the built-up saliva in his mouth. "Make sure Eridan doesn't get too ovwer enthusiastic or scared vwhile fighting, he's bound to slip up if he gets too extreme. Keep him levwel if you can, 'nd help him learn the medic shit in my book. Or all of you should, so vwe- you don't havwe to vworry about the medic bein' taken dowvn," he advised in a slightly defeated tone.

"Yeah... it wath jutht... I hated it. Thtill almotht killth me to even fucking remember it." Sollux said, shuddering a little at the memory. It was also the day he was bitten on the shoulder trying to kill Karkat before he could do more damage. Of course he didn't tell Eridan that, and never would. Ever. If he found out he's been bit, most likely he'd throw a fit and kill him. And everyone knew that Eridan wasn't good at being alone in dangerous times. He still missed Karkat. They connected pretty well, secretly went out until it wasn't so secret.

He just shook his head and gave Cronus' thumb a light squeeze. "I've done that and he'th been pretty good lately with keeping calm. We've actually gotten clothe. Huh. It'th weird that people can bond in the motht fucked-up thituationth. But don't worry, we'll learn how to be medicth. And hey. There thtill ith a chance you won't turn into one of the thingth. Don't fucking thcratch it and we'll thee how it ith," he said and took his hand out from under Cronus' hand to stand in front of him with a bit of a sigh, rubbing the back of his neck a moment.

"If it maketh you feel any better... if you do turn, you'll be part of a zombie army that I'll pretty much uthe ath thecurity for the day when Eridan'th thleeping." He shrugged with a bit of a snort as an attempt to maybe lighten the mood a little, despite the circumstances.

This was killing Cronus. He wanted to back out of it, run back to Latula and Eridan and hold them close, but he knew he couldn't. He was already shackled and Sollux had the key, and with the Vantases' bad experience in mind, he wouldn't let Cronus go until either he turned and was herded into the zombie patrol, or he healed and could rejoin them. Sollux's money was probably on the former, since his condition was far worse than a simple bite to the shoulder.

Cronus smiled softly when he heard about how Sollux was taking care of his little brother. Good, Eridan was never the most emotionally stable teen and needed a friend to keep him in check. "Yeah, like me 'nd Tula.. I'll try no' t' scratch," he promised. "I vwanna ge' back t' you guys."

The zombie army bit was actually pretty funny, and he chuckled a bit. "Good t' knowv. Protectin' you guys vwould be m' dream evwen after 'm gone." He smiled at Sollux, but then a tickle in his chest set off a coughing fit and he started hacking into his elbow, flecks of blood on the inner crook like someone flicked a red paintbrush at it. Not a good sign.

Sollux let out a bit of a sigh and shook his head a little with pursed lips. "I really withh that theeing each other again wathn't like thith. But, um... yeah, don't pick at it or it'll get worthe. I'd rather not have you be one of thothe thingth that'll wanna eat me. Then again... they jutht think I'm one of them." He said with a slight frown before shaking his head again.

"And we want you back with uth." Now that was rare, Sollux to actually admit he'd miss someone and say it directly to their face. "Again, if you need anything, let out a holler. I mean... anything reathonable. Like if you're thirthty, um... if you wanna talk... fuck, I don't know what elthe to give you ath an example. Obviouthly not for, well... okay, I'm going to jutht thhut up now. Gotta check on the otherth now." He said and watched the flecks of blood come from Cronus' mouth.

Yeah, definitely not ever a good sign when someone's coughing blood. Even if it wasn't the apocalypse happening. And with another sigh, Sollux pat Cronus on the shoulder again with a weak smile before going to the door again to lock him in the room.

"Right, I vwill," Cronus wheezed after he was done hacking up blood into his arm. "Make sure they're okay.. 'nd take care o' yerself, 'right? No use runnin' yerself inta th' ground." He grabbed the water and sipped from it, thankful he had thought to ask about it. It washed the taste of pennies from his mouth, and the door closed behind Sollux as he left. He'd be here for quite some time, thinking to himself as his body tried to fight off the infection.

He scratched the dying skin over the sides of his ribs often, until red-black blood was staining the sides of his shirt and three deep grooves refused to fully heal. His right cheek fell victim to his nails also, due to the skin warping and sticking to his skull, a mutation occurring and turning his teeth needle-like and sharp. Some days, Cronus refused to eat. These uneaten meals bunched up near the last half of the week, until he hadn't eaten in three days. Well, he hadn't eaten human food in three days.

His left pinky finger was gone, down to the edge of his palm. It had made Cronus sick almost immediately after he ate it on day five, and he hadn't eaten since. He wasn't faring well, in comparison to Sollux's case, but he was on the mend, despite the bite marks littering his arms and shoulders. His shirt was in tatters, but he was still in enough control to hum or even sing, if he recently had water. Right now, on day seven of captivity, Cronus sang 'The Calendar' by Panic! At the Disco. Sure, it broke in certain parts and he couldn't remember words, but singing was all he truly had.

Every day Latula and Eridan would ask if they could go with Sollux to see Cronus, to which the answer was always a no. Of course Mituna would just be checking out Latula no matter what she was doing and he really spoke his mind about 'that astsh' on her and, well, a lot of worse things came from his mouth. One of his comments earned a slap to his face from Latula's good hand before Eridan could flip out on Mituna to the point of pulling out his gun.

Sollux saw the changes in Cronus and refused to tell anyone else that it was getting beyond the point of no return for him and would just tell them that he was starting to heal up. Complete bullshit on his end and he almost felt bad about lying, but he never really cared anymore about it. Eventually he figured Cronus didn't need any more food, so he just left him a water bottle on his last visit instead. What he didn't know, however, was that Eridan had followed him that day.

On the seventh day, Sollux slept and Eridan took the key out from under his blankets to go see Cronus. Not like Latula could since her ankle was still fucked up, so he took it upon himself to go to the door and...was that singing? If he was singing, he was fine, right?! With a smile, Eridan opened the door to see Cronus... and he... oh god, he began to instantly regret it at looking at what happened. "C-Cro?"

The water was really all Cronus needed at that particular point. He still needed to get rid of the finger in his system, and regular food would be a waste unless it could stay in him long enough to make him throw up the bones. Too bad it was too late for that. Water was all he could ingest right then.

Hearing and tasting Eridan on the air after only ever being visited by the unsmellable Sollux cut off Cronus's song.

 _ **Food**_.

He stands abruptly, turning to face Eridan, pupils dilated. He was hungry. He wobbled slightly after standing, then took a step toward his little brother, then another, until he ran maybe four feet before the chains yanked him back and off his feet, onto his back. He yelped, and the pain cleared the blood lust from his mind. He trembled, tearing up. No no no, he's becoming the monster he never wanted to see himself as.

Eridan shrieked and jumped back away from Cronus when he ran over, eyes wide in fear of what he's become. Holy SHIT! Why hasn't Sollux killed him yet?! He thought the nerd had no emotions when it came to killing zombies? And he was obviously lying about Cronus healing up, that's one thing for sure. So with tears in his eyes, he turned on his heel and ran out of the room. Fuck, he didn't even close the door he was so horrified!

That's when he ran into Sollux when he apparently heard the commotion in the solitary room. "What the hell, Eridan! You... give me that fucking key, you idiot! Don't touch it again! I'm thtill trying to help poththibly heal him. Maybe try to rever-" And then the sound of a hard slap.

"BULLSHIT, SOL! YOU WWERE LYIN' ABOUT HIM BEIN' PERFECTLY FUCKIN' OKAY AND ALL THIS FUCKIN' TIME HE'S BEEN TURNIN' INTO A" another hard slap to Sollux's other cheek. "FUCKING. MONSTER!" Eridan yelled and ended up giving Sollux a hard punch in the stomach, making him bend forward with a groan in pain, holding his stomach. That must've hurt Sollux, but most likely hurt Cronus more when Eridan just flat-out called his brother a monster.

Of course, Latula had caught hold of their yelling conversation and frowned when Eridan said the word 'monster', making her sit up and make Mituna shut up. Yeah, she wanted to see him herself. And hey, she was okay walking a little bit on her ankle as long as she didn't lean too much on it.

Cronus laid there for some time after getting the breath knocked out of himself, eyes closed. Fuck, what came over him? He shouldn't- well what could he have really done? He wasn't in control of the others, or even himself right then. The shriek rang in his head as Eridan ran away, and Cronus closed his eyes. Would Eridan come back and finish him off? Cronus couldn't handle being like this.

The scream of 'MONSTER' hurt. Honest to God, that stung. Cronus knew it was true, though. He was a monster, despite the scabs that had started to form on his back. He craved human flesh and blood, though he felt it lessen as someone approached. He felt sick. He headed to the white bucket and threw up into it, and Latula would find him there when she walked in- throwing up the remains of his finger.

No way in hell was Eridan ever going to go see Cronus again. And he'd only ask Sollux if he's dead yet, but he couldn't go inside. Never would. While he was still in a yelling match with Sollux, Latula somehow managed to limp past them and looked into the room and her own eyes widened from behind her cracked shades. Holy shit... so this is what happened to Cronus.

Okay, so everyone else should be scared to all hell, and she was personally shaking all over... though she blamed it on her accidentally putting more weight on it, so she slowly limped into the room. Stupid idea? Yeah. Dangerous? Oh hell yeah. Suicidal? Well, probably? With a slight frown, she walked a little closer towards Cronus. If she could smell, most likely she wouldn't still be in there. "Cronus?"

He managed to hack up the finger into the bucket before hearing his name and turning to Latula. He still felt that hunger in his stomach, a curling bear clawing the inner walls and growling savagely, but she didn't attract that hunger. It was.. starting to recede, actually. He stared at her for a bit, then his human insecurities kicked in and he backed away from her and the bucket, turning to hide his disfigured cheek from her. She couldn't see him like this-!

"S-stay avwvay..." He didn't want to hurt her worse than she already had been, with her ankle and wrist. His disfigurement made his lisp worse, and he kept his left cheek facing her so she didn't have to see how horribly the infection effected him. "Go a-avwvay, before I turn b-back.."

She frowned and shook her head and only continued forward towards him, vaguely noticing that he had eaten a finger. And yet he wasn't attacking her yet. Not even a single growl? "Well... you're still talkin' and still remembering your name..." She said, looking at him and gnawed the inside of her cheek a moment in thought, though not moving from her spot.

And then she walked a bit closer. Or, well, close enough to gently touch his left cheek and run a few fingers through his hair as a small attempt to calm him down. If that didn't work, then, well... she didn't need that wrist anyways and they could be infected together. Ew, that'd be a weird love story. "Cro... look at me?"

Cronus shied away from Latula as she spoke to him, and one hand gripped at his own hair, tugging sharply. If he was in pain, he should be able to keep himself together, right? The pain of landing suddenly on his back had snapped Cronus out of his frenzy toward Eridan. Shit, he probably hated Cronus now... Maybe he was too far gone.

He flinched away from her hand and whimpered. "No no no don't touch me I'll hurt you-!" She touched his good cheek and hair, and he just shut right up. He refused to look at her though. He was a monster, an abomination, not fully human anymore. He had wanted to die with a happy lie in Eridan and Latula's minds, seeing him as they last saw him. After all, why else would he ask Sollux to lie to them on day three?

She just wanted to at least talk to Cronus, even for a little bit. And he didn't seem to even be sniffing at her hand or try and lick it like her old boyfriend did the first few days he was turned and tried to bite off her arm. Good thing she was quick on her feet back then.

With a bit of a smile when he shut up, she continued to gently stroke his hair and pet his cheek. "Too late babe. I'm touching you. And you're not hurting me." She said, running her thumb over his good cheek gently without much of another word, not wanting to ask him to look at her again seeing as how he was already not wanting her to even be there.

Cronus wasn't going to bite her. He was digging fingers into a particularly deep bite wound to keep himself in pain and focused on himself, not that he needed it. He thought that he did though, and didn't associate the finger with why he lost control. Something in bone marrow had sent him spiraling off the deep end, but coughing it up had gotten it out and the stomach acid helped get rid of the last traces. He was in control, but he didn't feel like it.

He still flinched a couple times as she petted his hair and stroked his cheek. He didn't deserve this, he scared Eridan and showed them the lie he made Sollux tell the three who didn't visit. Why was she being nice to him..? He was a freak! Everything was just too much, especially with the little pet name. He teared up and wiped his eyes with the back of his hand, the four fingertips stained red-black, near purple.

Sure, Latula was a bit mad at the lie Sollux told them, but she preferred truth to lies. But maybe that was just her. Then seeing his four fingers wipe off his cheek, she frowned a little and reached out a little to take one of his fingers. "You really got a bit deep with hunger for human flesh, huh?" She muttered, not judging him at all for eating his thumb and instead figured he needed love more than anything else right now. He needed someone to support him. Be with him. If he tried to bite her, then... well... She still had one good leg and-

Her thoughts were interrupted by a high-pitched scream from upstairs, Sollux and Eridan stopped their fighting. It sounded like Mituna's scream.

Fuck.

"No one thhould've gotten inthide, the zombieth thhould be taking care of any raiderth that would... THHIT, FUCKING BULLTHHIT! DID YOU LOCK UP THE PLACE, ERIDAN?!" Sollux blurted out and Eridan only stuttered.

"Thought you did..." Eridan confessed before there were gunshots. "Fuck, I didn't bring my rifle, either... didn't think I'd need it..." He muttered and the sound of Sollux running seemed to echo throughout the hall, only to grunt and fall to the ground with a whimper of pain. Yeah, Eridan didn't wanna stick around to watch whatever happened to the nerd and yet ran after him to grab something from a closet. Metal pipe. Fucking perfect.

"What..." Latula frowned and stood up a little to move towards the door...only to be pushed down onto her back, a loud whack sounding through the halls from Eridan hitting someone and knocking them back. Of course that didn't work when he was grabbed from behind, screaming insanely as Latula rolled to the side, holding her head with a groan. "Sooo not rad..."

Latula took Cronus' hand and he didn't look at her while he slowly nodded. His pinky was gone, collateral damage to a passing hunger he couldn't control. Why was she risking her own life, her own personal safety? He didn't get it. This situation had really damaged Cronus, turning him from his usual prideful self into someone... scared. He was constantly terrified, and the zombies put into perspective that while he may be one of the last survivors, he was a small speck on the planet that could be devoured by the masses at any given moment in time. That was terrifying.

Mituna's scream made Cronus jolt and quickly yank his hand back. He could smell that sweet scent of blood all the way from up here, and let out a rather canine-esque whine. What was happening? Sollux was yelling out in the hallway, then Cronus heard gunshots.

 _ **Raiders**_.

He quickly stood, then Latula left the room before he could bring himself to call out, "stay here, it's sa-fer!"

Eridan's scream brought out something in Cronus that he never wanted to see again. He turned and bent down, grabbing part of one leg chain and pulling hard. He had seen a deformed link before, and his rush at Eridan weakened it enough to bend and release Cronus' left leg, a foot or so of chain attached to the cuff around his ankle. He did the same with the other leg, ending up with a slightly longer chain, then it was time for his hands.

Without any clue to where the others left his blades, Cronus needed something to fight with. He looped the chain around his wrists once and held onto it, pulling hard once he hit the end of the slack.

 _ **Creaks, metallic screeches, and a loud thump**_ soon followed as his right arm's chain snapped in two and the other pulled out the metal ring that hooked it to the wall. He looked over his former bindings, then turned toward the door and ran straight toward the raiders, swinging the left chain in a fast circle to act as a bullet shield.

Latula was watching as Cronus broke free and rubbed at her head a little. Yeah, this was almost something like a video game or maybe some sort of superhero comic book. Damn, she missed those days. Controller in her hand, chilling out in her beanbag chair in front of her TV, pushing her friend around to get her to lose. Man, those were the old days...

Of course Sollux had put Cronus' blades up in their weapon storage closet. Which should be reinforced pretty well and locked up nicely. At least the raiders couldn't get to that stash, but they didn't really need to since one of them had a good machine gun emptying itself through the bullet shield and the guy was obviously pretty accurate with his shots... but shocked when they were deflected by the zombie thing wielding a chain in front of it.

"I... take everything back, that'sth..." Sollux coughed out, spitting onto the ground and made a face at seeing a couple teeth come out from one of the earlier punches from a raider. "Maybe the coolest shit I ever seen in my fucking life..." He said with another cough, hacking up some dark yellow blood.

Yeah, everyone reacted to a bite in different ways. And he ducked when a bullet bounced off the chain to nail someone in the forehead, giving him time to move so he could force Eridan down and away from the risk of fire. Of course, there were a few scratches, hopefully nothing else.

Something inside Cronus had snapped at this point. They fucked with his friends and family, they injured Mituna, and _**they were going to pay**_.

He snarled lowly as a raider began emptying their gun at him, the chain deflecting almost every single shot. One grazed his ear and two more buried themselves in his stomach and hip. The nerves in that area had died, so it didn't seem to affect his approach to the raiders. He kept walking, then picked up speed. Once he hit a certain distance, he ducked to one side and his right arm lashed out with the metal ring-tipped chain, aiming for the machine-gun-toting man.

Cronus watched a length of the chain wrap around the man's head, then yanked. The resulting gore was only met with a dark grin, and a raider definitely pissed himself. The machine gun was dropped and Cronus yoinked his weapon to face the others, blood lust overtaken his mind.

 _ **Hunt hunt kill feed-**_

After the shock worked through the humans, a couple quickly aimed at Cronus but he was on the move already, using chains and nails to wreck the shit of every single raider that hasn't turned tail and ran. The last one was a rather smug bastard who tried to use a hunting knife once his gun ran out of ammo. Cronus took the slash across the chest, then punched the man in the chest, crumpling something by the sound of the _**CRACK!**_ it made. He pinned the raider's arms to his sides while he screamed, then forced his head back. Cronus's teeth buried into the man's throat and chomped down hard, then he ripped his head back. Blood splattered his face and clothing, red mingling with the violet staining his clothes from the bullet wounds.

Eridan just stared, wide-eyed as he watched Cronus chomp down on the last raider's throat. Sure, he was thankful for being saved like that, but seeing his brother like this, and what he was easily capable of doing- Wait, where'd Sollux go off to? With that, he frowned and stood up once the raiders seemed to be distracted or dead or barely hanging onto life.

The answer of Sollux's location was soon answered with a scream and the sound of a couple gunshots in their safe room...er, blanket room. "Well shit..." Latula muttered with a hand on her head, Eridan going to help her up from the ground, hearing her wince a little with the throbbing pain in her head and back.

"Er... should wwe..." Eridan stuttered, Latula just gnawing her bottom lip with a small shrug. Might as well see exactly what was going on with the silence and sobbing from the blanket room.

Cronus went to chew and swallow the hunk, but that didn't go as planned. He ended up heaving it back up, falling to his knees as he threw up blood and throat chunks. Nope, can't eat that. He seemed.. allergic to human blood and flesh, the inversion of a regular zombie. His urges changed, and he was left feeling almost hollow as gunshots rang out. He pushed himself up to his feet, turning to look toward the safe room.

Cronus limped over to the duo, his right shin bleeding from a gunshot, and offered them a weary smile. "H-hey guys... 'm sorry Eri. Hawvwen't felt like m'self," he mumbled. "...wvwvhere's Sol?" His lisp was worse.

He wobbled, about to topple over at any second. Might be a good idea to either help him stand, or just drag him back to the blanket room. Just a thought.

Eridan tried to look away from Cronus, though Latula looked at him and moved out of Eridan's grip so she could move over towards Cronus, wrapping an arm around his waist on the right side of him. Obviously she didn't care right now seeing as she saw him puke out the guy's flesh. "Fuckin' bullshi-" Eridan started before Latula cut him right off.

"Everything's fixed up now. Everything's awesome." She said, making Eridan just drop the subject.

"Sol's... in the blanket room." Eridan said and kept his head turned away before awkwardly getting on the left side of his brother. "Let's go see him, I guess... make sure he's alright." He muttered and Latula just nodded, rubbing Cronus' back above the scratch marks.

Cronus almost flinched away from Latula, but once her arm was around him, he leaned against her. She seemed to help keep a lid on himself, make him stable. He took a deep breath, then felt the drying blood on his face and wiped it off on his inner forearm. He needed to get ahold of himself, and keep his instincts from controlling him.

He nodded softly, then glanced over to Eridan. Cronus would definitely be apologizing for scaring him until the end of his days, even after Eridan says it's okay. Well, if Eridan ever does forgive him for that...

"Lead th' wvway, Eri."

Latula smiled a bit and continued to gently rub his upper back, Eridan only nodding as they started walking. Then he paused in the doorway of the blanket room with his eyes wide, rushing over to Sollux after hopping over a dead body. Most likely one of the raiders, as he tried to comfort him at seeing most likely one of the worse things to see.

"Holy shit Sol, there wwasn't anythin' y'coulda done, and..." Eridan started, only getting swat at from Sollux as a few harsh spluttering coughs were heard from Mituna.

"I SHOULD'VE FUCKING STAYED HERE! I WAS... SUPPOSED TO HELP HIM! I WAS..." Sollux blurted out, though it was shaky, it was very clear what he was saying.

Latula just frowned and walked Cronus inside the room, her own eyes widening as she saw Mituna on the ground with a bullet wound in his head and a long cut over his stomach. "Oh...jeez..." She muttered, not knowing what to do as Mituna moved his head to look at Cronus and Latula, gesturing for them to come over weakly with one of his hands with a heavy cough, blood coming from his mouth and stomach with those movements.

Cronus gives Latula a smile in return for the soft rubs. He needs those. Walking is hard though, when you have a bullet in your shin and can't feel it. You just feel weak in spots, until apparently there's a corpse and you FUCKING TRIP ON IT. Thank god he let go of Latula as he went down hard. Getting up might be too hard, though. He's pretty badly injured, especially since he keeps moving and ignoring the blood.

He looked up to see Sollux crying over Mituna and his heart dropped. No no no not another person- He swallowed hard, like his finger was stuck back in there. This couldn't be happening.

Cronus picked himself up and let Latula help him closer. He never did get to apologize, and he didn't know what to say. "T-Tuna..?" He choked up as he spoke, then coughed into his arm. Dammit, ow.

Latula let out a squeak and managed to catch herself on the frame of the door. Damn, how didn't she see that body? Seriously, she could've helped Cronus avoid falling over the thing. But hey, nothing she could've really done to side step it all.

Mituna let out a small whimper as he looked at Cronus and Latula go over to him, his eyes on mainly Cronus and what happened to him. "I... 'm thsth...orry... I f...forgot..." He coughed again, blood continuing to come out of his mouth. Maybe he had been punched in the face hard enough to bite his tongue? His teeth were pretty sharp, after all. "A... wa'ch... adder... thsth... thsth..." He whimpered, the light slowly fading from his eyes, hand dropping to the ground with his body back to the ground.

"NO!" Sollux shouted, shoving Eridan off him to look at Mituna. "I can... I can fix him, right? Yeah, just... Eridan, pass me the med book!" He blurted out at Eridan, only for him to shake his head slowly.

"Sol... he can't." Eridan said, that statement alone making Sollux's tears continue to flow down his cheek, now on his knees. Yeah, that couldn't feel good for the younger Captor.

Getting up was hard. When your body is pretty damn injured and you used almost every drop of energy to kick ass, you just want to fall asleep where you fall, even if you never wake up again. Cronus almost did that. Mituna's whimper helped remind him that he had to get up, he had to check on his friend even if he hadn't seen him in a week and Tuna didn't remember him. He had to do that much at least.

He hauled himself up and covered his mouth with a hand, because that scent was back and he knew it meant nothing good. He managed to wobble on over to Mituna and his wounded leg gave out, sending him to his knees. He took in the sight of Mituna's condition, and he knew that he was a goner.

"..'s fine," he replies softly. "Your wvwatch is owvwer, rest." A lead block settled back in his chest as Mituna went limp, and Cronus let his head bow. There was nothing more to do, except to lean over and close Mituna's eyelids for the last time.

"...Sol. Wvwhere.. can wvwe... bury him?" His tongue was starting to feel like it was freezing to the bottom of his mouth, and his words were slower than they should have been. He leaned over Mituna and grabbed a yellow blanket, yanking it over and laying it next to the body. "He.. can't... stay here." Violet was pooling the floor around him, mingling with Mituna's red puddle. He needed medical help, and fast. "...med...ic?" He fell backwards, fainted from blood loss.

Sollux just shook his head, sitting down with his knees to his chest, continuing to mumble things to himself as he was still in denial of Mituna's death. Yeah, he wasn't paying much attention to anything else. However, Eridan looked over at his brother's condition and sighed.

He felt terrible calling his own brother a monster, especially now. For once, his brother needed his help. Good thing he had basically memorized the medical book in Cronus' bag. "I'll do it, Cro." He said, looking back at Sollux and not getting a response. Soon enough, he had gone to get the advanced medical kit that had been taken off a raider earlier that week.

"Y'got this, Eridan." Latula nodded and sat beside Cronus, stroking his hair slowly while Eridan worked his medical magic.

While Cronus laid unconscious, he dreamed of all sorts of things, both unpleasant and not. Some dreams were of himself and Eridan doing lame brotherly things like catch or discussing that one show about the lady who studied bones to solve murders- right, the show's called Bones. It was stuff like that, or taking Latula out for milkshakes and a movie, or doodling bees in a notebook with Mituna or being beaten in video games by Sollux. Kid always did better with an X-Box controller.

The unpleasant ones.. were terrifying. Zombies rip him apart, piece by piece, or a cannibal did. He saw the others die, though Mituna kept dying the exact same way: stomach slice, blow to the head hard enough to crack his skull. Sollux and Cronus sometimes had to watch a horde yank Eridan off the ladder up and see him scrabbling for a hold, a way up, then Sollux puts a bullet between Eridan's eyes once he sees half a leg being ripped off. Latula is killed many ways, once even by a runaway car, many times by raiders.

Cronus was deathly still during those parts.

Whenever Cronus would be still, Latula put a hand on his left cheek and her injured hand would go through his hair with a nod from Eridan as a silent way to tell her to do that. He knew his brother well enough to know that any female touch would calm him down since they all only were around guys who'd be mean to them. Well, aside from the Captor and Vantas families. Least they still had Sollux... well, what was left of the poor guy's mind.

"Cro, babe, it's alright." Latula said, leaning down to kiss his forehead where it wasn't quite as bloody. Then she began to hum a small tune that her own mom would hum to her and her sis when they went to bed. Well... when she had no work that night. There were words to it too, but she couldn't quite remember them. She remembered the first two words, though... "Carry on..." she hummed, continuing to just hum the rest of the tune.

Eventually, once Cronus was more stable, the deathly still parts became few and far between. His pain was tapering off, a couple of nerves probably dead or dying by then. Compared to Sollux, Cronus got the short end of the bite-survival stick. Like come on, look at him! He looked like a complete freak, more undead than alive. Who would ever fall in love with a face like that? Certainly not Latula, as Cronus would think.

He woke up to Latula's hand combing through his really gross, unwashed hair and immediately opened his eyes a crack. "Mngh..." He wouldn't know it, but his wounds might take longer or less time to heal- it was a toss-up on which one it would be, however. He moved his head to look at everyone, then closed his eyes again. "Thanks.." He whispered

"No problem babe.." Latula whispered back to him with a small smile, her fingers continuing to go through his hair and going so far as to stroke his good cheek while her other hand went down an arm to take Cronus's hand. As cheesy as it sounded, she wasn't so into looks as she was with personality. Plus she really loved to play with his hair.

While all this was going on, Sollux continued to stare at Mituna's lifeless body. He was right there. He could've done something. He should've KEPT TRYING to fucking do something! Obviously he didn't do anything now but whine as Eridan kept telling him not to use any medical supplies on him. Hell, he put Sollux in a sort of time-out corner and pulled a blanket over Mituna's body.

Cronus gently squeezed Latula's hand once it was in his own, four fingers in between five. Maybe if that strain had octopus or starfish DNA or some shit, Cronus could grow the missing pinky back. Probability was highly unlikely, though. Too bad for him. He leaned his head toward her hand, eyes closing once he feels tears brim up. She's so kind to him..

His thoughts went to Mituna and Sollux and he propped himself up a bit with a hiss of pain. Ow ow ow getting shot hurt, 0/10 no stars do not fucking recommend. He saw the body covered with a blanket and sighed softly. So he hadn't imagined that.

His gaze went to Eridan, and he smiled weakly. "Thanks Eri, feelin' more.. aliwve nowv," he said, barely above a whisper.

Latula smiled lightly and ran her thumb over his four knuckles. Sure, she'd miss his pinky, but at least it wasn't his thumb, right? Seeing him close his eyes, she let out an internal sigh and ran her thumb over the bottom of his eyes a moment before he sat up.

Eridan just nodded and let out a sigh. "Yeah. Had ta fight Sol ta make him stop tryin' ta wwaste 'em on a lost cause." He said with a shrug while rubbing the back of his neck, looking over at Sollux's general direction. Still moping and staring at the blanket and refusing to take his body away. Still family.

"Y'okay, Cro? I mean... considering what's happened and all that..." Latula asked and leaned down enough to kiss his forehead softly.

Cronus shouldn't have bitten that finger off. He might need it, and it gave him such a bad reaction that he could've killed Eridan, had it not been for the chains. Her hand was so nice and warm though. His body temperature was closer to 93° Fahrenheit than the normal 98.6°. He was cooler, almost clammy-feeling.

He glanced over to Sollux and gave him a sympathetic look. Poor guy... Eridan was probably kinda like this after their Dad got turned or eaten, and Sollux found him. Cronus would go over and try to comfort him if he could, but he was stuck right then. Dumb injuries.

"Are any of us really okay?" He looked to Latula again. "Wvwith evwverything so fucked up, 'm pretty sure none of us can be considered okay." The forehead kiss made him relax though.

Latula sighed lightly and shook her head. He was right. No one was okay in these times. She remembered being broken like Sollux was when she was forced to watch her sister get turned and having to kill her because of a pact they made in the event of a zombie apocalypse. Of course at the time they didn't actually think that it would actually happen, but both agreed to it anyways.

"You're right... no one's really okay. But what I meant was more... you're not craving human flesh, right?" She teased lightly and kissed the more normal side of his face, a toque on her head to keep her hair back and from her head injury earlier from the raiders. Didn't want the bandages to show.

Eridan actually wasn't as broken up as Sollux was when their Dad died. At least their Dad was somewhat turned before he had to shoot him with the family rifle. Mituna's death had been painful and fairly slow. He didn't deserve that. And neither did Sollux.

Oh. The human flesh thing. He quickly nodded. "Totally fine. Actually, uh, I think I'm allergic to it..?" Cronus replied with a sheepish shrug. "Ended up throwvwin' up after bitin' the guy earlier.. 'nd the uh, thing wvwith you Eri? Somethin 'bout the, um, finger I bit off wvwas makin' me nuts. My bad," he apologized. He blushed at the kisses and turned to hide his face the best he could.

Sollux certainly didn't deserve that. He deserved better, as they all did. This shouldn't have happened.

"Allergic to human flesh? Huh. Never heard of a zombie not being able to stomach humans. Want a gummy bear? Or marshmallow? A peach?" She asked, petting his hair softly.

Eridan just shrugged, looking over at Sollux. "Yeah. 'm fine. Sol definitely isn't. And it's my fault for not lockin' up everythin'. And for takin' the key to see you." He sighed, rubbing the back of his neck before going to try and talk to Sollux, only to get silence.

Latula giggled at his blushing and kissed his forehead. "You're so cute when you blush, holy hell!" She laughed and kissed his hand.

He was hiding behind his hands as Latula asked, then mumbled, "Gummy bears please." Give him all the gummy bears. He will make himself sick on those and keep going. He loves gummy bears.

"Wvwell, you wvwanted to see me, vwvhich I can understand," he replied, still hiding. "the door thin' is more of evwveryone's fault. Nobody double-checked." He was exempt because he was in lockup and half-mad on his own bones.

"Nooooo!" He whined at the kiss to his forehead, covering his face more. Latula would be able to see two angry purple scabs in a zigzag shape from a raider's nails on his forehead.

"Aww..." Latula giggled and put her hands over his, running her thumbs over the back of his hands. "Guess ya don't want gummy bears that badly~" She smiled and put her cheek on one of his hands, giving it a kiss before letting go of his hands to take a gummy bear from a bag nearby. Eridan already had a bucket nearby in case Cronus would need it.

"I was gonna feed 'em to you, Cro." She whined in turn before gesturing something to Eridan, almost instantly getting a first aid kit tossed beside her. "And lemme put some band aids on those scabs on your forehead. Damn. C'mon babe, open up~"

Yeah, she didn't like to see facial wounds and didn't really care about what he looked like. Or what his mouth looked like. Sure, it was a bit screwed up and bloody, but it wasn't her blood and he was seemingly allergic to eating human flesh. Obviously he wasn't craving it either.

He parted his hands at the mention of gummy bears, staring at them. His one other weakness. "I do wvwant them," he mumbles like a pouty-ish seven year-old. He could smell the gummy bear and moved his hands completely to open his mouth for her. Feed him. He's been living off nothing but water for three days.

"M'kay, I opened up." Expectant open mouth awaited gummy bears. Feed the poor child. His blood sugar was low as fuck.

He didn't seem to crave it unless he forgot himself. Rage, extremely negative emotions, those would set off the hunger inside him that could very well kill him. If he hadn't yakked up the finger, he'd be dead by that or the hand of a raider.

She smiled and reached the gummy bear down to put it between his teeth. "Was that really so hard to do?" She giggled with a kiss to his forehead, fingers combing through his hair. Yeah, she figured he'd be hungry like crazy and Sollux was so far eating nothing but sweets. She's seen him try a string of beans from a can of green beans, only to see him run off and hear the hacking of him throwing up. Like, ew.

"Better?" Latula grinned and put another gummy bear between her fingers to wait for his command, also wanting to see if he could stomach the first one. Hopefully he could.

With another kiss to his forehead, she caught a glimpse of Eridan apparently giving up on trying to talk to Sollux. She couldn't blame him, the guy was as good as if you talked to an unbreakable brick wall. "'m gonna go lock up and search the bodies. You look after Sol, okay?" Eridan sighed, looking back at Sollux. No reaction, as to be expected.

Cronus gently took it with his teeth, then snapped it up and chewed. He shrugged as he munched on the sweet gummy bear, which was absolutely better than the taste of bile and blood in his mouth. He'd definitely have to brush his teeth later, because ew dried blood was still on the more revealed teeth. Oh hell, more kisses. Latula was too good at making him blush like the flustered virgin he was. (Did you honestly think he ever got laid?)

He swallowed, and opened his mouth for the next one. Finally, something he could eat and keep down. He wondered if there was any sushi briefly, then discarded it. Probably all went bad months ago.

"M'kay, Eri. Be safe, take somethin' wvwith you just in case," he advised, not wanting to lose his brother like Sollux lost Mituna, after all. If he could move without it hurting like someone shot him, he'd go with Eridan for safety's sake.

Latula just laughed with a wide smile on her face, holding the next one between his teeth and let go once he had it right. "You're so sweet when you get all flustered, Crooo~" She smiled before taking a few band aids just to cover the scars on his forehead, giving the band aids a little kiss. "And here comes another gummy bear. Oh! Eridan, try and see if any of the raiders've got-"

"Female products. I knoww. And I got th' rifle, I'll be fine Cro." Eridan said with a light smile. "An' you gotta stay wwith your girlfriend, not wworry about me all the time." He chuckled lightly before leaving, locking them all in the blanket room.

[And that concludes the end of the fan fiction since both me and my roleplay partner agreed that it was getting a little stale and OOC near the end, hope you enjoyed!]


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